Women artists in ‘Mugna-Lantaw 2’ exhibit

Among the 16 artists featured for exhibit “Mugna-Lantaw 2” in ArtPortalCebu in Consolacion, Cebu are five women artists: Betsy Alterado, Tina Gandionco, Zapphire Benedict M. Jayme, Ana Maria Lubanga and Ma. Rowena Vios.

Alterado studied fine arts in UP Cebu but marriage made her stop schooling.

“I did not stop working on my art. I worked as a designer of fashion accessories and home décor. Recently, I opened my own company, Co-Nature Handicraft, in Cortes, Bohol. As for painting, I am not really that active but Celso (Pepito) kept inspiring me to continue. So, I always have a prepared canvas so that anytime I feel like painting, I can do it immediately,” she shared. Using acrylic, she paints nature scenes, usually with animals, birds in them.

Gandionco is a UP fine arts graduate who, she recalled, “worked a long time in different fields, the last being in a hospital as environmental services manager.”

“Now that I’ve retired,” Gandionco shared, “I am into full-time painting.”

She started to paint again in 2015, 35 years after her college graduation. She uses acrylic and occasionally watercolor, and she used to paint mainly flowers. These days, because of the pandemic and people becoming plantitos and plantitas, she has added plants and leaves as subjects of her paintings, as well as landscapes.

Jayme recalled that in elementary school, she used to win drawing contests and in high school, she designed t-shirts. After college graduation, she wanted to decorate her room with paintings but could not afford them. Using poster paint, she decided to make paintings herself and found out that she could do it.

In 2019, she participated in an art class under Pepito, joined an art exhibit and on the first try, her painting sold and she got commissioned works.

“I love beautiful things, and my idol is Marilyn Monroe because she’s so beautiful. I love gold and black,” she shared.

In the exhibit, her paintings reflect this obsession with Monroe, done in bold gold and black with touches of red, inspired by Andy Warhol’s painting of the late movie actress.

Lubanga had her first painting lessons in 1974, under Jess Roa, when she was in Grade 6. She revived her love for painting in 2003, encouraged by Pepito, doing pen and ink. She used acrylic for this show, but she also does watercolors. She has never used oils because “of the smell.”

“My favorite subjects are flowers, dancing ladies. Also, I use gold leaf in all my paintings to make them look more bright.”

“I come from a family of artists—my father, my siblings,” said Vios.

“I use oil and occasionally acrylic, especially for on-the-spot paintings. I have been painting since elementary school but stopped when I got married. Our business then was into hardware, construction supplies. But now I am into real estate and can concentrate on painting.”

She resumed painting in 2017.

“My subjects are usually of nature.” She has two lovely paintings in the show to prove her statement. What makes her paintings different is that she puts texture in them.

Other exhibiting artists in “Mugna+Lantaw-2” are Artemio Anga, Leodito Bongo III, Ramon de Dios, Bong Francisco, Luther Galicano, Juan Guido Lubanga, Maxcel Migallos, Joseph Ong, Celso Pepito, Jose Mari Picornell and Marlowe Villagonzalo.