Literature: Jaber, Hala, Raffles-The Art Collection, ABS-CBN Publishing, Philippines, p.200 (illustrated)

ABOUT THE WORK

In the modern sense, still life was and is a primary means of taking painting away from an illustrative or mimetic function to one demonstrating independently the elements of color, form, and line. Generally, a still life includes a fully depicted background, and puts aesthetic rather than illustrative concerns as primary. In this painting, Palomo has arranged the breakfast objects in such a way that they make a formal composition in the two-dimensional plane of the canvas, but also have a spatial relationship in depth. Anthony Palomo was a member of Salingpusa art collective, a group of struggling young painters formed in the 1990s who have since then pursued celebrated individual careers as artists. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Major in Painting) at the University of the Philippines in Diliman in 1992 and started exhibiting his works in public that same year. Palomo won several national art competitions, most notable of which are the Grand Prize (WatercoIor Category) at the 24th Shell National Students Art Competition in 1991, Grand Prize (Watercolor Category) at the 11th Metrobank National Painting Competition in 1994, and a citation as finalist in the 1999 Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards.