‘Whispers in Watercolor’
The cake maker is also a painter. In both ventures, she is prolific and excellent.
Penk Ching, whose famous Pastry Bin cakes (a collaboration with her sister Shen Ratilla) have become part of many a celebration in high society and the corridors of power, formally launched her one-woman watercolor exhibit titled “Whispers in Watercolor” last Monday at Chef Jessie’s in Rockwell, Makati. The exhibit of 27 exquisite watercolor artworks will run until the end of December.
On the walls of Chef Jessie’s can be found a number of ballerina paintings, perhaps Penk’s ode to her unrealized childhood dream of becoming one even if the dance studio was just a stone’s throw away from her house. Ballet classes then started at 2:30 p.m. Penk’s classes ended at 4 p.m. And her parents didn’t want her to miss classes.
Somehow, somewhere, the ballerina that she wanted to be did a grand plié, an arabesque and a pirouette all at the same time on the many canvases of Penk. She may be a frustrated ballerina but her pure love for the dance is evident in Little Ballerina in Blue (10” x 7”) where a child daintily does a pirouette.
Her Wisteria (21” x 15”) is an ode to a good life that keeps on glowing, that keeps on blooming. Receptacles droop just right, dancing slightly to the rhythm of the wind. There’s joy, peace and hope on the canvas. These and more lounge in the mind of Penk; and with dexterity, her hand paints them. Her strokes are a proof of a steady hand, a hand held by God all these years.
Penk’s road to picking up the brush started in 2010 when, while in a meeting in a restaurant, she bumped into two lady clients of Pastry Bin who invited her to a painting class they were attending. She wanted to back out but things happened fast and soon, her friends had already ordered art materials for her. It would become her first encounter with artist Fernando Sena. The rest was history for Penk, who took up Business Administration at the University of Santo Tomas. She finished her MS in Management at Arthur D. Little Management Education Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“I have been painting for 15 years now. I was a frustrated artist before. I feel I still have so much to learn,” Penk says, her tone lilts like the watercolor, fluid, spontaneous, less predictable.
But for her art teachers Peter Ng, Roland Santos, Ceasar Cheng and Fernando Sena and “teacher in life” Rachy Cuna — exhibit guests of honor who cut the ribb
on — Penk has already learned much.
Roland Santos, Penk’s teacher in watercolor painting, tells The STAR, “Penk has always displayed diligence as a student since she started 15 years ago. I consider watercolor as the hardest medium but Penk does it well. She’s patient. And patience, a lot of it, is needed when one uses watercolor as the medium. She’s able to transfer her artistry in cake design into painting.”
“She is a multi-talented artist. She does not only know painting. She also does sculpture. Her being a sculpture artist is displayed more in her cake designs. Her painting medium is Western, but the spirit is Oriental,” Peter Ng, Penk’s teacher in basic drawing and sketching in 2013, says.
“She was my student in Chinese painting 10 years ago. Though she does not do Chinese painting anymore, I can still see Chinese painting strokes in her Western watercolor painting. She has improved a lot. She was a diligent, industrious student,” says artist Ceasar Cheng.
For Fernando Sena, Penk’s art teacher in 2010, the artist in her is a solid spirit. “Malakas ang loob niya. She’s courageous. She has a sterling quality as an artist, of perfecting her work. Watercolor is considered one of the hardest mediums. But Penk was able to overcome all the difficulties in the application of watercolor. I like her colors, striking.”
“I knew Penk was destined for more things in life the first time I saw her cake design. She has the talent. And she has a kind, beautiful heart to match her talent,” says Rachy Cuna.
“I owe all my teachers a lot. They built my confidence. Rachy is a friend, my idol for more than 30 years. He has become my teacher in life the first time he gave me his constructive comments about my cake design. Who wouldn’t value the words of the floral architect of the Philippines?” Penk says.
“Whispers in Watercolor” is Penk’s shoutout to the world of how grateful she is that her gift of talent is overflowing. *
(“Whispers in Watercolor” runs until Dec. 30 at Chef Jessie’s in Rockwell, Makati City.)
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