RIC ARTE'S SEARCH

By Arnel Mirasol

One need not take up Fine Arts in college if one wants to be a good painter. There are a few or even several painters, whose names escape me at present, who are big names now in the Philippine art scene even though they weren't fine arts students before. There was the National Artist Hernando R. Ocampo, who was a writer by profession, but went on to make his mark as an abstractionist with a very distinct style. There was also the architect Onib Olmedo and the pilot Lino Severino. Even though Olmedo and Severino are not, and may never be, National Artists, still, I count them among the most illustrious names in Philippine art history. Why? Because both of them have inspired and influenced many painters, who emulate their style and choice of subject matter. Many painters, including Marcel Antonio, who's National Artist material himself, have openly admired Olmedo's works. I can also add Elmer Borlongan (another National Artist material in my book), and perhaps his whole Salingpusa confreres, among Onib's admirers. Looking at Onib's painting (below), we can easily see who Elmer's source of inspiration might be for the bald humanity he is fond of depicting in his paintings.

Lino Severino, on the other hand, seems to be forgotten nowadays, because I haven't yet heard of any painter of vintage houses paying tribute to him as his primary influence. A pity - because Severino was a big name in the seventies. He was the one who popularized paintings of old houses, facades mostly, which he depicted in a manner that was almost abstract. I consider these paintings - his Vanishing Scene Series (below) - as still the best of this genre.

Ricarte Ico follows in their footsteps.Although his talent in art seems innate (his fascination with drawing began from his pre-school years), it wasn't Fine Arts that he took up in college. He majored in History at the CAP College Foundation, and also earned later on a Certificate in Teaching at the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State Univerity. He also has several units in architecture from Saint Louis College La Union tucked under his belt. Ricarte was born and raised in San Marcelino, Zambales, but is now based in Bauang, La Union. Ricarte learned the basics of painting from artists friends, and honed his skill further through self-study and constant practice. His knowledge in architectural drafting led Ricarte to explore the possibilities of integrating fine art and architecture in his paintings. Ricarte had already won four first prizes and one second prize in six on-the-spot competitions he joined. He had exhibited works in various venues in San Fernando City, La Union, and Metro Manila. I met Ricarte at facebook, and I've encountered him in person only once, at the Marikina Riverbanks, when we were both invited by Isagani Fuentes to join his group, Akwarelistas, in their plein-air painting session. A sociable fellow apparently, Ricarte, although residing in far-away La Union, readily confirmed his attendance, and was at the painting venue early. Ricarte is a member of several art groups, like the Artists Guild of La Union, and also of the Pinoy na Pinoy Visual Artists, Inc.(PPVAI), and the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) - which further attests to his outgoing ways. Ricarte is not a full-time painter yet - he is still working as an Administrative Assistant at the Department of Education's office in San Fernando, La Union.

Ricarte started painting in 1995. He began as a realist, as all painters should. I have reiterated in my writings that an artist should first master the rudiments of realist drawing and painting before venturing out to try his hand in abstraction and other modernist styles. And that was exactly what Ricarte did. Among his early works, his painting of sunflowers (above right), is the one I like best. Although pointillist at first glance, this painting's brushwork is really distinct from the original pointillist technique invented by Georges Seurat, and popularized here by Ibarra dela Rosa. Seurat's method was to juxtapose dots of different colors which were blended optically by the viewers' eyes to create from afar the illusory intermediate colors. Ibarra utilized the same principle, but his brushwork deviated somewhat from Seurat - instead of dots, he applied sausage-like curvilinear shapes to his canvases. Ricarte does things differently, however. He applied his dots of lighter hues more as finishing touches, to lighten areas in his paintings that need lightening. Whether true or not to the pointillist principle , Ricarte's paintings can be as charming as the paintings by the old masters of pointillism like Seurat, Pissarro, Signac, Sisley, and Ibarra. But Ricarte is not only a sociable fellow; he is also apparently a restless one. He could have rested on his pointillist laurels and content himself in churning out pointillist canvases for the rest of his painting career - like what Ibarra did. But, no - he chose to explore other styles, specifically cubism. His paintings in this genre are on the verge of becoming non-objective abstractions, especially the later ones of fishes , whose lines, both the straights and the curves , seem to be drawn using rulers and other mechanical drawing instruments. Perhaps, this is the fusion of fine art and architecture in his paintings that Ricarte spoke of. I wouldn't be surprised if Ricarte veered further towards the non-objective extreme of Constructivism and Suprematism, because Ricarte after all was an architectural draftsman once. He would I'm sure relish drawing the lines, squares, and arcs that define the paintings of the practitioners of those schools. At any rate, this search for new forms on the part of Ricarte should be applauded. The results justify his experimentation. Because his cubist paintings of fishes (and even of the playful Angry Birds below) will most likely win the nod of those critics, collectors, and painters, who consider the clinically-realistic academic paintings passe, trite , and uncreative.

Angry Birds of Paradise