Theresians hold art exhibit at Chef Jessie in Rockwell
MANILA, Philippines - An art exhibit titled “Grateful Hearts” featuring artworks by six St. Theresa’s College QC high school Class ‘67 alumnae opens today at 4 p.m. at Chef Jessie at the Rockwell Club in Makati City.
The artists are Rory Dee-Pineda, Connie Guanzon-Garcia, Mariles Mangosing-Besinga, Margie Penson-Juico, Cench Salomon-Manotok and Jenny Valenzuela-Gabuya.
Guests of honor at the ribbon-cutting are Belgian Ambassador Roland Van Remoortele, Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev, Filipino Heritage Festival president Mita Rufino, and Philippine STAR Lifestyle editor Millet Martinez-Mananquil who is the artists’ Theresian batchmate.
Fifty years after graduation, the members of high school class ’67 of St. Theresa’s College in Quezon City return to their alma mater with grateful hearts as part of their homecoming preparations. The phrase “Grateful Hearts” is lifted from the college hymn with the lyrics “Come, Theresians, and acclaim/ St. Theresa’s glorious name/ Grateful hearts their tribute bear/ Loving lips shall sing for her.”
Rory Dee-Pineda took art lessons under Marissa Sison, Jimmy Navarro and Roland Santos. She has exhibited at the Capitol Art Gallery and at the GSIS Museum. Her style ranges from Realism to modern Impressionism, covering subjects such as still life, fruits and flowers, landscape and seascape, abstract and nudes as well as portraits and religious themes, but she is most comfortable painting flowers which grow abundantly in her garden.
Connie Guanzon-Garcia says, “I did not know I could paint.” It was in Vienna (which was where her husband Ambassador Victor Garcia was posted) where she first took formal lessons in painting in 1999. She has participated in exhibits held at the Vienna International Centre and the Kuntshistoriches Museum, among others.
During the Garcias’ posting in Moscow, Connie took up lessons under a religious Russian Orthodox artist who was a follower of the Prosopon School of icon writing, which was inspired by St. Andre Rublev, a prominent Russian artist of the Byzantine era. Connie’s icons were exhibited at the Philippine Embassy and the St. Petersburg World Exposition Centre.
Mariles Mangosing-Besinga, a UP Fine Arts graduate, worked in the publication field for 20 years. “Art allows me to unleash that urge to create and convey to others what I believe, feel, and remember. My art style shows my desire to simplify one’s life, look for life’s core.”
She prefers pastels and color pencils. Her artworks can be found in the collections of SGV and DBP as well as a number of private collections here and abroad.
Margie Penson-Juico, who was President Cory Aquino’s Appointments Secretary, took up painting lessons together with President Cory and friends as a post-Malacanang hobby under a private art instructor, Jeffrey Consumo, and later on her own under Roger Conde. Because of the toxicity from oils, she has shifted to acrylic paints on canvas and wood. Her favorite subjects are trees.
She says, “I feel this is a tribute to and inspiration from my father, Cecilio Penson, who loved to plant trees. In La Mesa Dam, a shrine was dedicated to him for initiating the planting of a million trees there.” She adds, “My philosophy is — as my daughter Mayen would put it — if you do not understand your painting, just say it is abstract. Usually, the mouth will speak what the heart is full of. But in my painting, I will portray on canvas what or how my mind perceives my subject.”
Cench Salomon-Manotok was always drawing, even way back in grade school when she used to doodle in class. In high school, she was president of the Art Club and artist of the school paper. Later, she took lessons in oil and acrylic painting with Susan Recto and Jun Canonizado. She likes doing Impressionistic landscape paintings. Claude Monet is her all-time favorite painter. “I even went to his house in Giverny, France to see the subject of his paintings.”
Jenny Valenzuela-Gabuya was a student of interior design at the University of Santo Tomas. She started drawing and painting on wood, which she sold in American bazaars. “When my husband died eight years ago, I was depressed and needed therapy,” she relates.
Her daughter, Marijo, enrolled her in a watercolor painting class. “I was challenged since watercolor is the most difficult medium to master.” Her favorite artwork, “Madonna and Child,” was her first painting.
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Selected artworks by the featured artists will be exhibited and on sale for the fund-raising activity during the whole month of September at Chef Jessie Rockwell Club, Ground Level, Amorsolo Square, Amorsolo Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati City.
