Cesar Montano: Consummate artist
L.V. DE LEON, Philippine News
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Ever humble, he faxes a request: Mga kababayan, I heard about the festival. I would like to submit my paintings to be included with the Loboc Children’s Choir tour in your Roadshow. 50% of the proceeds will go to the Panaghoy Children’s Foundation. I know there is little time but I hope it can be squeezed into the program. This is my first exhibit in the United States (and Canada). Signed, Cesar Montano.
How could festival organizers not accept? The artworks of Cesar Montano, the multi-talented actor with an eye on Hollywood, film director, and now, painter were irresistible to behold. It evokes multi-layered images of home: the water, islands and people. It is the passion of a consummate artist like Cesar Montano to put in canvas the love of his life: Bohol, the land of his boyhood and now, the object of his desire to improve the quality of life of his home province.
http://www5.gmanews.tv/webpics/articles/2007/08/08022007_painting.jpgMany people acknowledge Cesar Montano for his unparalleled accomplished: from portrayals of national hero Jose Rizal, Fredo the ruthless captain in Muro-Ami, to a Muslim doctor-refugee in Bagong Buwan, to Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River) —which he produced, directed and starred — and then on to Hollywood with The Great Raid and Another Deep Breath.
Panaghoy sa Suba garnered 16 awards and 11 nominations from various film festivals in the Philippines and the Best Picture award in the International Festival of Independent Films in Brussels, Belgium.
But as an oil painter? Very few people know he paints on oil and draws subjects from familiar sights and scenes: sabong (cockfighting), balay (homes in the neighborhood), isda sa suba (river fish), inahan (motherhood), tasa og kape (coffee cup). As an assorted body of some 50 works, his paintings are brightly hued, with bold streaks and multiple strokes, with fuzzy backgrounds and intense lines of silhouettes. There is much to see and imagine in his paintings, drawing attention to his eye for color, interstices of lines and intricate figures, to his sense of nature and transcendence.
You have to see it to believe that man is gifted with grace, with the capacity to breathe life into lasting images that stir our curiosity and invoke passion, even to faraway festival organizers to extend the help to show his artwork to broader audiences. That much art can be generated by the interpretation of simple sources of inspiration. He must only pick up brush and bring the pathos to the empty canvas as Cesar Montano has done.
Moreover Cesar Montano paints with a sense of community, for his people in Bohol, for life in a tranquil community in a complex world. He engages in art, films and community activism for the principle of “giving back to the community."
He was inducted as a commissioner of the Unesco in 2005, to serve as Philippine representative for culture and the arts, an honor he earned for his tireless promotion of heritage sites and preservation of the environment. Born and raised in Manila, Montano says he learned the values of heritage preservation early on. Every effort he has now he devotes in promoting Bohol, his little paradise in central Philippines where he spends time painting and relaxing with family and taking up community causes.
His forthcoming exhibits during the U.S.-Canada Summer Festival Roadshow next month is a treat we can all look forward to – starting with the Philippine Pavilion at the Pistahan Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco (August 11-12) and culminating at the inaugural Filipinos Making Waves Festival at Harbourfront centre in Toronto, Canada (August 17-19).
It will be a peek into Cesar Montano’s life and future as a visual artist that completes his persona as a truly remarkable renaissance man of our time. - Philippine News
(For more information about the twin festivals that will feature Cesar Montano the visual artist, please visit
www.pistahan.net and
www.harbourfrontcentre.com/wr. To inquire about reserving or purchasing Montano’s Bohol-themed artworks, please call: 415-424-8908 or email
[email protected] or
[email protected].)
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