Landscape oil on canvas painting by Carcar realist painting master Martino Abellana set for auction during the Kabkaban Festival of Carcar 2006

A landscape oil on canvas painting by Carcar realist painting master Martino Abellana is set for auction on Friday, November 24 at 1:30 p.m. during the Kabkaban Festival of Carcar's second art auction in the Don Mariano Mercado heritage house.

The "Seascape at Kwasi, Tuyom, Carcar" opening bid is Php 350T (Three hundred thousand fifty pesos) for this 24 ½ inch by 30 ½ inch oil on canvas masterwork.

Abellana painted "Seascape at Kwasi, Tuyom, Carcar" on four consecutive Sunday afternoons during the summer of 1977 in one of his favorite painting spots, near the 16th century Bantayan sa Hari (Spanish Watch tower) by the sea in Barangay Tuyom. In this painting, Abellana depicts high tide going out with two of his art students standing in the background beneath a bright blue, almost cloudless sky. Abellana painted "Seascape at Kwasi" using a palette knife like his other Carcar landscapes.

Martino Abellana (1914 - 1988) was born in Carcar. He was the dean of Cebuano artist and giant figure in the Cebu art world for many decades. His many award-winning works, one-man shows, portraits, figure paintings, land and seascapes done in different medium had a significant impact and influence on Cebu and Philippine artists and on Philippine art.

Abellana received a four-year full scholarship for the School of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines-Manila. He graduated with honors in 1938. He studied under Fernando Amorsolo and other old school painting masters. As one art critic said about him, "Abellana has a penchant for depicting peace and quiet in nature, though his paintings move with the rhythm of life. There is an honest warmth about his details and colors that dramatize ordinary scenes in barrio life." Another art critic said, "Abellana paints with the sea with colors of the sun and adds a distinct touch of rusticity and naiveté to his canvasses." Part of the proceeds of the sale of "Seascape at Kwasi" will go to benefit the Carcar Heritage Conservation Society, Inc. (CHCS), a local NGO and the organizer of the yearly Kabkaban Festival of Carcar. "Seascape at Kwasi" comes from a private family collection.

During the first Kabkaban Festival 2005 art auction, "Semana Santa sa Carcar" (Holy Week in Carcar), an oil on canvas painting by Abellana protégé, Romulo Galiciano, sold for a Cebu art auction record amount of Php 276T (Two hundred and seventy six thousand pesos).

The Kabkaban Festival of Carcar 2006 premiers an all-new Cebu night festival concept "The Festival of Lights in Homage to Santa Catalina de Alexandria" (St. Catherine of Alexandria) on Friday, November 24 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Kabkaban Festival 2006 premiers the declaration of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church as a diocesan shrine of the Archdiocese of Cebu by His Eminence Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal in September 2006. The Carcar Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS) and St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in cooperation with nine Carcar schools and the town's 15 barangays join together to produce a new religious festival activity to complement the Carcar town fiesta that preserves the solemnity of the traditional Carcar evening religious procession.

Carcar holds the Kabkaban Festival 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.

Carcar's cultural heritage festival gets its name from the Kabkaban, an abundant and hardy tree climbing fern most prominently seen on the branches of sprawling rows of old acacia trees lining the National Highway in Barangay Perrelos.

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