Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)

Labelled the country’s first National Artist in 1972 by then President Marcos, Fernando
Amorsolo is often known as the ‘Grand Old Man of Philippine Art’. The Spanish-trained realist
developed a backlighting technique, where his colorful depictions of local people reflect the
radiance of the Philippine sun. The figures and illuminated landscapes magically glow on the
canvas. Despite his deteriorating health and failing eyesight, he remained prolific until the end,
producing up to 10 paintings a month until his death at the age of 80. Amorsolo’s creativity
defines the nation’s culture and heritage to this day.

The Vargas Musuem – found inside the campus of his alma mater, the University of the
Philippines, displays a notable selection of his work.
José Joya (1931-1995)
A Filipino pioneer of Abstract expressionism, multi-media painter José Joya uses bold and
vibrant colours with a variety of painting techniques, layering, loose impasto strokes and
controlled drips. His harmonious colours are influenced by Philippine landscapes and tropical
wildlife. His mastery lies in gestural paintings, where the paint is applied spontaneously on
canvas, sometimes directly out of the tube or through the use of broad strokes with brushes.

Joya influenced younger artists to explore other mediums such as pottery and printmaking while
he served as the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines. In 1964,
Joya represented the country in the Venice Biennial, showcasing the advancement of modern art
in the Philippines.

His most notable painting from 1958, called Granadean Arabesque, is a large scale yellow hued
mural that features clusters of sand and impasto. It can be viewed at the Ateneo Art Gallery in
Manila.
Ang Kiukok (1935-2005)
Born to Chinese immigrants, Ang Kiukok is the pioneer of Philippine modern figurative
expressionism. Rewarded as the country’s National Artist in 2001, he was one of the most
successful commercial figures on the local art scene from the 1960s until his death from cancer
in 2005. Like Amorsolo, his paintings are popular at auctions and have received exceptionally
high bids at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. He is known for his distinct cubist and surrealist portrayals
of the crucifixion of Christ and mother and child. However, he is acclaimed for his series of
Fishermen at Sea, which connects both energy, faith and the struggle of fishermen under a
vibrant crimson sun labouring together to bring in the haul for the day.

His notable works are represented in the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the National
Historical Museum of Taipei and the National Museum in Singapore.

Benedicto Cabrera (1942-present)

Fondly known as ‘BenCab’ in the Philippines, Cabrera is the best-selling commercial painter of
his generation and a prominent head of the local contemporary art scene. He studied under José
Joya at the University of the Philippines and received his degree in Fine Arts in 1963. His fruitful
career has spanned five decades, where his paintings, etchings, sketches, and prints have been
exhibited across Asia, Europe, and the US. He currently resides in the chilly northern hill station
of Baguio, where he established his own four-level BenCab Museum on Asin Road that features
an eclectic selection of indigenous artifacts, personal works, and an overwhelming collection of
paintings from contemporary Filipino artists.
 Types of Painting Techniques

 Oil painting
 Watercolor painting
 Pastel painting
 Acrylic painting
 Digital painting
 Ink wash Painting or Literati painting - Chinese black ink
 Hot wax painting or Encaustic painting
 Spray Painting
 Fresco secco paintings - wall painting technique
 Gouache - opaque watercolor medium
 Enamel paintings
 Tempera paintings (are very long lasting)
 Sand Painting.. etc

1. Oil painting

Oil painting can be a difficult task for beginners. Oil painting is suitable for almost all kinds of
styles. You get to work with smooth texture of paint and it has a wonderful scent to it. Oil paint
uses some drying oil as a binder to the pigments, which gives the wonderful buttery feel to the
paint. The most common drying oils used as a binder are walnut oil, linseed oil, poppy seed oil
and many more. Oil painting was first used by Indian and Chinese artists in the 5th century

2. Watercolor painting

Watercolor painting is usually done on the paper. In this particuar type of painting, one uses
water based solutions to mix the colors and hence the name water color painting. Compared to
oil painting, watercolor painting is also similarly tough task. Nowadays you have plenty of artists
trying out realistic looking portraits using watercolors. The mixing of colors is very crucial in
this, since too much of anything, changes the shade of the colors.

3. Pastel painting

Pastel sticks are normally used to create the pastel paintings. Using pastel sticks you can
immediately start drawing and coloring, it uses the same binding pigments, except pastel sticks
are a powder form which are bound together using a binding agent, and they are readymade. If
you are looking for pure and deep colors, then it's highly recommended to use the pastel sticks.
Pastel paintings can be done on canvas, so you can do beautiful layering of colors with pastels.

4. Acrylic painting

If you are looking for faster drying painting, then acrylic painting is the best. These are water
soluble paints, yet once the painting is complete, it turns water resistant. Interesting fact isnt't it?
Most hobbyists love to work with acrylic paints. For sculptures, moulding, facial features, many
artists use acrylic painting. It is easier to clean the brushes after ise, since acrylic paints need
only water to wash them off.

5. Digital painting

Digital painting is the art of creating artwork on a computer, which makes it resemble a
watercolor painting, oil painting or even an acrylic painting. A digitally prepared oil painting and
manually done oil painting will have plenty of differences, since you have access to plenty of
other textures and instruments which are easily available on the system. Yes, you don't have to
worry about paint spills a standing for long hours. You can do the same art in a relaxed manner,
at the comfort of your homes.

6. Sand painting

Painting on sand can be quite messy and it's a temporary art. The sand painting can be captured
on video using speed motion, to understand how the artist works on them. It's normally done
with minimal light, but has a focus light under the table where the sand painting is being created.
Sand painting is created using coloured sands, which is moved around on a fixed surface using
hands. It is practised in many countries and is known by several names, in India it's known as
kolam or rangoli.

7. Texture painting - Texture to Paint

We all love to see the brush strokes on a painting, it gives a dramatic final effect. Texture
paintings are mostly used with oil paints, since while working with acrylic paints, they effects
are lost when the acrylics dry up. But oil paints tend to be expensive, so as a substitute one can
use acrylic impasto which works amazing on textures. Apart from regular paint brushes, flat
knifes, blunt objects are used to create texture paintings.

8. Matte painting

Beautiful landscapes are usually created with the help of matte paintings. Matte paintings are
widely used in the film and video game industry. In the film industries large sets are created after
a matte painting of the locations are finalised. Sometimes the environments like fairytale, sci-fi
are very expensive to build, in such cases matte paintings are used as background screen and
merged with other footages.

9. Spray Painting

Paint is usually administered from a spray bottle to achieve the desired results. Mostly spray
paints are used on streets(street art), graffiti, canvas, wood, metal, glass, ceramic and more. If a
large are of canvas requires the same pigment, spray painting technique is used to cover the areas
for a faster turnout.
 10. Graffiti Art

Graffiti art is mostly done on public buildings with/without permissions. Graffiti is not meant to
be understood by the general public, it's a style of writing or drawing/scribbling which has no
absolute meaning .The first graffiti artist was a highschool student in 1967, who used to write on
walls to get his lady love's attention. Graffiti became a full fledged known painting technique in
1980, were many artists resorted to public walls to showcase their talent.

11. Ink wash Painting or Literati painting - Chinese black ink

Ink Wash Painting is also known as Literati Painting. Chinese black ink is used to create these
artworks. The chinese black ink is quite popular in the asian country since it's mostly used for
calligraphy. Various shades of black are created by mixing water to the black ink to create the
desired consistency.

12. Hot wax painting or Encaustic painting

Hot Wax Painting is also known as Encaustic painting. This painting technique uses beeswax
which is melted and added to color pigments. Both cold wax and hot beeswax are used in this
technique. Encaustic paintings are usually created on a wood canvas.

13. Fresco secco paintings - Wall painting technique

Fresco secco paintings are usually created on a freshly created lime plaster. The color pigements
are mixed water solution and directly applied on the lime plaster, thus creating a permament
painting. Fresco secco paintings have been around since the renaissance period, one can view
these paintings in the vatican walls and ceilings.

14. Gouache - opaque watercolor medium

Gouache is an opaque watercolor medium used with other binding agents to create art. A white
chalk or white color is added to the water color mixture to attain the opacity in the Gouache
technique. The gouache cannot be applied directly onto a canvas, since it does not bind well, if
you want to use it on canvas, then acrylic pigments have to be mixed. Take care not to dilute the
acrylic colors, since the paintings may not have your desired look.

15. Tempera paintings - Long Lasting Painting

Tempera paintings are known as egg tempera art. They are fast drying and the paint longs laster
than others. Egg yolks are used as a binding medium with paints and since it's highly glutenous,
they tend to dry faster. This is one of the oldest known painting techniques. Instead of eggs,
sometimes, gum, glycerin, casein are used as a binding agent to the mixture of water and colors.

16. Enamel paintings - Art with Enamel Paint

Enamel paints give a glossy or shiny look once they are dried completely.

17. Drip Painting - Paint Drips

As the name suggests, paint is dripped on the canvas to create drip paintings.
18. Underpainting - Layer Painting
A base paint is added to the canvas and more layers of colors are added to create beauting
underpaintings.

19. Panel Painting - Multiple Parts Painting

Panel paintings are created on multiple panels of wood and joined together.

20. Velvet Painting - Art on Velvet Material

Velvet painting is usually created on a piece of velvet cloth.

21. Leaf Painting - Art on/with leaves

A painting created on a leaf or creating leaf shapes with paintings is known as leaf painting.

22. Reverse Glass Painting - Glass Painting

Reverse glass painting is applying paint on glass and the picture is visible when you look through
the glass.

23. Miniature Painting - Small Paintings

Miniature paintings are small hand made paintings.

24. Action Painting - Fast, Direct Sweeping Brushstrokes

Action Painting is a fast, spontaneous painting with direct brushstrokes on the canvas. The drips
of paint cause a beautiful effect.

25. Anamorphosis - Perspective Painting

Anamorphosis is perspective painting.