The First Diaphanous in Oil: Olazo’s Luminous Journey from Acrylic to Oil
An early work from Romulo Olazo’s Diaphanous Series, Diaphanous 96, with its luminous swathes of blues and subdued greens, stands out as one of the first Diaphanous paintings to be painted in oil rather than acrylic, the medium with which Olazo began his now-iconic and acclaimed series in 1974. (1974 was also when Olazo pursued painting as a full-time profession, shifting from the art of printmaking and advertising)
It was in 1976 when Olazo achieved a consummate progression of his young oeuvre from acrylic to oil. This shift in medium came with a likely realization within Olazo that oil possesses more luminosity than acrylic, thus the perfect medium with which Olazo can experiment with and better convey the delicate elegance of light. In this regard, color, texture, and form all dance in an ethereal glow, endowing richer tonalities, a more organic structure, and the sheer illusion of a three-dimensional space.
Oil as a medium gave justice to Olazo’s Diaphanous. With this, it became clearer than ever that Olazo had indeed found and arrived at his own light. It is a willful pursuit that goes beyond the medium and crosses a realm of solemnity that gives prominence to one’s dynamic virtuoso.
Ma. Victoria Herrera succinctly narrates the origins of Olazo’s Diaphanous paintings in her essay “Romulo Olazo: A Willful Journey in Art,” published in the artist’s 2013 monograph. “The Diaphanous Series of paintings evolved from the graphic processes of serigraphy and collage intaglio that Olazo started to develop in 1972… Olazo experimented by switching pigment types, that is, from the traditional printer’s ink that registered flat and opaque images to the painter’s oil pigments that created translucent layers. This allowed him to achieve effects of light and texture. He then experimented further by cutting old newspapers as stenciled patterns. Pigment is applied with a brush or by a single run of the squeegee to as many as five layers.” (Adrian Maranan)
Provenance: Private collection, Manila