Accompanied by a certificate issued by Paseo Gallery and signed by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot

ABOUT THE WORK

Romulo Olazo's painterly affair with anthuriums began in 1994 when he chanced upon its flowers in one of his weekly drawing sessions with the Saturday Group of Artists at the Flower Farm in Tagaytay. This encounter would soon prove to be a beautiful stroke of serendipity. Upon leaving the farm, Olazo brought an armful of anthuriums and gifted it to his wife, Patricia. Eventually, the couple's residence would be showered by the Flower Farm with anthuriums as compliments a few days after Olazo had come back from the drawing sessions. Cid Reyes wrote in the book Romulo Olazo: "It was as if the flower farm had intuited Olazo's attraction for anthuriums, thereby accidentally, if indirectly paving the way for another theme in the art of Olazo." When Olazo commenced the Anthurium paintings, the subjects were executed realistically like a floral still life. Later, Olazo would visually translate the anthurium into his iconic Diaphanous; his anthuriums would finally come into full blossom. Olazo's friends and acquaintances had always described him as cordial and affectionate and having genuinely warm eyes. It was no wonder that Olazo developed a personal affinity with the anthurium since it has come to symbolize benevolence and hospitality because of its open flowers. Olazo saw the anthurium as akin to his temperament, thus closely identifying himself with its flowers through his private visual language. With its expressive contours, Olazo also saw the anthurium in its most poetic and evocative form. Cid Reyes wrote: "Its providential heart shape is itself a valentine that was proffered to him on that Saturday Group painting session at the Flower Farm. When the artist brought home an armful of anthurium and represented them to his wife Patricia, the correspondence between love and art acquired a dimension that needed a manifest expression. These anthurium paintings are the progeny of that felicitous moment."