As beautifully shared by Edwin Wilwayco: “Painting is a discovery. Everytime you make a mark on canvas, all sorts of possibilities open up and all sorts of problems to which you have to find the solutions. When you take a brush to canvas, you never know exactly the result paint is going to make. The tension of always trying to push yourself over the edge, of testing the limits of your imagination, in the hope of creating impressions distinctly your own and quite beyond anything you ever expected when you started out. Therein lies the continual challenge and beauty of the act of painting for me.”
Wilwayco has an illustrious career spanning several decades, with accolades and citations granted to him by both local and international award-giving bodies. His paintings are a lush and vivid homage to nature, rendered in oil on canvas. Largely inspired by Mondrian’s signature rectilinear style and bold use of color, he found himself experimenting with realistic forms to come up with his own abstract imagery. He also acknowledges the influence of his American and British-educated mentors on his art, mixed with his personal meditative process. His palette holds hues that do not clash, but seem to translate themselves on canvas in a manner that is almost intuitive. This artist’s personal relationship with color seems to highlight this observation, as he describes it as the very air he breathes.
Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Manila