FOR THE first time, painting majors of the College of Fine Arts and Design experienced how it was to showcase and sell their works in an open-house exhibition at the gallery of the Beato Angelico Building last Nov. 19 to 23.
“(The professors wanted) the students to feel how is it like to sell an artwork,” said Mailah Baldemore-Balde, painting professor and one of the organizers of exhibition, titled Mga Pyesa: 1 2 3 4. “We want them to be appreciated when someone buys their painting. This is like a steppingstone where we make them feel the life of an artist in the world outside.”
The works, which covered different artistic styles such as modernism, impressionism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism and realism, were plates required of the students.
However, Balde said she did not want the students to consider their works as mere plates.
“Actually, the event is after the exposure of the students. That is why we opened it to the public,” Balde said. “I do not want them to think that their works are only plates but rather, an expression of themselves.”
Each artwork had a fixed price of 300 pesos. Money from the sale of the paintings went back to the student-artists.
Amor Pizzaro, a junior painting student, said that for a novice, the price of each painting was reasonable.
“Although the price is low, it is just fair (for both artists and buyers) because we are still first-timers and students at that,” Pizarro said. “Besides, the canvass used in the painting is relatively cheap, which only costs less than a hundred.”
Since the painting department only has four sections, or one per each year, painting professor Maria Rita Teresa Batalla-Laforteza said the exhibition was also an opportunity for all painting majors to see the works of others, and be acquainted with one another.
