Romulo Galicano to auction original painting

International award-winning painter Romulo Galicano will donate an original oil on canvas painting "Semana Santa sa Carcar" (Holy Week in Carcar) during the first ever Carcar art auction on Sunday (November 20) 1 pm at St. Catherine's College Hall during the Kabkaban Festival of Carcar 2005.

The opening bid for the Galicano 14" by 18" oil on canvas painting is P180,000 (one hundred eighty thousand pesos). The auction is to benefit the programs of the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS), a local non-governmental organization.

21 prominent Carcar and Cebu artists scheduled to participate in the Sunday Art Auction and Exhibition are: Gabriel Abellana, Darby Vincent Alcoseba, Tony Alcoseba, Vidal C. Alcoseba, Jr., Andrew Barba, Boy Briones, Boboy Cañete, Pronnie de la Cerna, Carly A. Florido, Luther M. Galicano, Jun Impas, Jorge Lao, Rudy Mañero, Clint Normandia, Celso D. Pepito, Dong Tallo, Jr., Dongkoy Tangorurang, Carmelo Tamayo, Orley Upon, Antonio Vidal and Jose "Kimsoy" Yap, Jr.

Kabkaban Artists Exhibition hours are 9 am - 5 pm (Saturday) and 1 - 5 pm (Sunday) in St. Catherine's College Hall.

Galicano, a Carcaranon, will be honored with a Kabkaban Festival homecoming. He is the first Filipino painter since Juan Luna in 1884 to win a prestigious global art competition.

Realist painting master Martino Abellana, Galicano's late member and teacher, will also be honored for his contributions to Philippine and Cebu art and culture.

Galicano recently won the 2005 Draper Grand Prize at the May 12 to 15 annual conference of the Portrait Society of America in Washington, DC. Galicano's 30" x 40" oil on canvas portrait of Mr. Eddie Chua bested over 1,000 entries from all over the world.

Galicano will exhibit a reproduction of his winning portrait with some of his other works in a Kabkaban Festival exhibition with other prominent Carcar and Cebu artists.

Carcar's Kabkaban Festival gets its name from an abundant and hardy tree climbing fern called Kabkab still seen on the branches of acacia trees in town. The Kabkaban Festival is a showcase of the Carcar's local delicacies and oldest town industry in a parade set against the backdrop of the town's heritage houses and Spanish colonial era town plaza.

The Kabkaban Festival is managed by the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS). It is held on the third Sunday of November to coincide with the November 24 and 25 Carcar town fiesta in honor of town patroness, Santa Catalina de Alexandria (St. Catherine of Alexandria).

The Carcar Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS) is a non-governmental organization founded in 2002. It is composed of heritage house owners and concerned Carcaranons dedicated to preserving the town's heritage buildings, monuments, historic sites and culture.