Nostalgic Viajes

CEBU, Philippines -   The wonder of art and the beauty of it all have been best captured by tres pintores españoles when they gathered recently their latest chef-d'œuvre under the roof of a French gallery, right in the middle of the Philippine business center, highlighting an artistic sojourn that transcended the political, the social, the distant and the divided, for an art that unites humanity.

This is exactly what happened at the Alliance Française de Manille's Total Gallery, in a well-attended, highly successful and captivating exhibition called Voyages where unplumbed travel paintings of renowned artists-all with Philippine ties-Juvenal Sanso, Betsy Westendorp and Cesar Caballero led their guests deep into the core of their creations-products of craftsmen who are distinct geniuses in their own genre.

Catalonia-born, lively raconteur Sanso, who remembered well spending his childhood in the district of Paco, is known for his surrealist artworks of landscapes adorned with tropical spectrum, a style which he maintained yet again in the concept and execution of paintings on France, Spain and Asia such as in Spanish Sunflowers and Alhambra Park.

La elegante y graciosa Westendorp will likely never be forgotten with her expressive floral murals and portraits of the country's beautiful women. In Voyages, she hand-stroked the bucolic scenes of the Spanish countryside of La Mancha, Hondarrubia, Guipuzcoa and Guadalupe, immortalizing them into detailed and serene images such as Consuegra and Tximistenea that seemed to have always existed in the artist's nostalgia of her Iberian home.

Meanwhile, the vibrant Madrileño, Caballero, had been restless throughout his aggressive collection. Continuing his undying interest in feverish experimentation, he came out with a set that thrives in mix media as reflections of socio-political realities in Infinitum (Manila Night) and personal struggles in You Don't Know Me and Burn My Shadow, regardless of whether they be in Manila or Madrid.

These multi-awarded painters of global stature with several much-coveted obra maestras on their travels have grouped these in one exhibition engulfed with nostalgia-what a coup!