When I walked into the painting class in Elaine Ongpin Herbosa’s gallery in her home in Ayala Alabang, there were about eight students, each with a canvas in front of her, finishing up their work for that day. The Spanish Mediterranean gallery was brightly lit from the well-placed overhead lamps, as well as the sunlight coming from the large glass windows. Nude, still life, portrait and landscape paintings done in different media and sizes were hanging all over the white walls, nicely complementing the antique furniture of the gallery. You could feel the seriousness of the class while the students worked on their paintings. The only sound you could hear was soft classical music in the background, along with the pleasant exchanges between one female student and the art teacher, who moved from student to another to give her critique.
Each student was painting a still life, including Elaine, whose subject that day was a pukaw jar, some eucalyptus sprigs, and an orange on top of an antique table. Behind her subject were an olive cloth and a Chinese screen. As I carefully approached her from behind, she was so focused on her subject that she did not even notice I was there. She looked at her set of brushes, paused for a moment, and then pulled the right brush for the task at hand. She then mixed raw sienna and yellow ochre oil paints on her palette, looked back at her subject, and added a little ultramarine blue just to get the right color for the shadow of the jar. She paints exactly as she sees, in the French atelier method. After seven years of art classes and generations of art in her blood, she has learned the old masters’ technique of rendering the shape, form, texture, color, light and shadows of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional medium.
The Ongpins have a long history in art. The famous Filipino master Damian Domingo, whose paintings are currently on exhibit at the Ayala Museum, was Elaine’s third great-grandfather. Alfonso Ongpin, Elaine’s grandfather, was the art collector in their family. The walls in his house were filled with artworks, including works from Luna, Hidalgo, and Amorsolo.
“It seemed like if there was a space on his wall, he would hang one of his collections on it,” Elaine recalls. “Even the posts had paintings. It was that kind of environment I was exposed to.”
When she was young, she wanted to study art abroad, but did not have the means to do so. Instead, she had a career as an entrepreneur, starting and managing family businesses all her life, from baking to real estate and the stock market, and the dream of becoming an artist was put on hold. Eventually the dream was passed on to her daughter, Mia, who shared the same dream.
Mia was given the opportunity to study in the Art Students’ League in New York where she made a name for herself, and won many prestigious awards in a highly competitive international field.
“It was Mia who rekindled my passion to start painting,” Elaine says.
Aside from Mia, two other events jump-started her career in art. One was the construction of the art gallery in her home.
“The art gallery was constructed by accident,” recalls Elaine. “One day, Mia wanted to have an art show, but because of time constraints, it was difficult to find an art gallery that could accommodate her. So, I decided to convert our old teahouse into an art gallery to house her paintings.”
Because of her fascination for rainbows, she named the art gallery L’arc En Ciel, which literally means “arc in the sky” in French, a name she picked up while vacationing in Paris.
The other event was when she started an atelier with a group of friends who shared the same passion for painting. Through the years, the group has grown considerably in size. They meet regularly at L’arc En Ciel every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for classes, painting sessions, classical music and warm, home-cooked merienda.
Elaine feels blessed that she was given another chance to pursue her dreams, and wants to give back to God and the community.
“If things work out well with the atelier in the future, our group would like to sponsor promising, young artists to study art abroad,” says Elaine.
Now at 62, Elaine has been married to Pocholo Herbosa for 41 years. They have two children, Alfonso and Mia, and three grandchildren, Luigi, Nina and Lana. With a loving family, a fulfilling career, a gallery at her home and a second chance to follow her passion, Elaine continues to see rainbows in her life.
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Elaine Ongpin Herbosa’s solo art show “Rainbows in My Life” is on view at the Ayala Museum from Nov. 22 to Dec. 6. Cocktails and hors d’ouevres will be served on opening night, Nov. 22.
Visit her website at http://larcencielgallery.blogspot.com.