Art: A different ball game for Dante Silverio

There was a time when Dante Silverio was identified with fast cars and basketball. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, businessman and sportsman was popular in the Asian car racing circuit, while his Toyota Tamaraw team was a legend in local basketball.

These days, Silverio’s ball is in another court, so to speak, the world of art.

Silverio’s passion for art did not arrive with the speed of a Celica or the swiftness of a fastbreak. It took years, 12 to be exact.

He was kissed by the muse one Saturday in 1990 when he strode into the Finale Art File in Makati and came upon a nude sketching session of the famed Saturday Group, then headed by National Artist Cesar Legaspi. So fascinated was Silverio by the creative process that was unfolding before him that he decided to linger and quaff from the artistic energy pervading all over the place.

It took another two years from that time before Silverio finally did his first artwork. With guidance and encouragement from Legaspi, Silverio honed his craft. To this day the artist says he still keeps close to heart lessons on color theory, draftsmanship and chiaroscuro techniques he acquired from the late maestro.

Pastel was Silverio’s first medium and still lifes his first subjects. He later tried oil and included landscapes in his repertoire and, eventually, portraiture. Close to 10 years after his first incursions into the realm of painting, Silverio mounted his first exhibition, Scented Serenades, at the Glorietta Art Center, third level of Glorietta 4 in Makati. This Friday, March 8, Scented Serenades 2 opens at the same venue.

Silverio’s current crop of works are proof that he is well versed in his three favorite genres.

"Flowers in a Vase" and "Fruits, Homage to Fernando Amorsolo" are fine examples of his facility with still life. "Flowers in a Vase" shows how he manipulates color, light and shadow to create a sense of movement. These very same elements are also used cleverly to situate the subject amid a dreamlike atmosphere. "Fruits..." not only mirrors his being adept at color, but also his grasp of composition.

Silverio’s landscapes, on the other hand, approximate the opuses of local and foreign masters, such as Fernando Amorsolo and Claude Monet, to name a few. "Labandera, Homage to Amorsolo" and "Fire Tree Reflections" bear this out.

As for portraiture, Silverio’s works showcase virtuoso brushwork and handling of oil reminiscent of the paintings of John Singer Sargent, the Italian-born American portrait artist and esteemed student of Carolus-Duran, who is one of Silverio’s favorite artists. "Natasha in a Flower Garden" emerges like Sargent’s "Lady Macbeth" through a sea of thick and randomly applied green pigment.

While Silverio derives inspiration from masters in the art world, he is nonetheless able to make his paintings distinctly identifiable as his own. Planning, composition and color choices are after all, in the artist’s very own court.

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Scented Serenades opens Friday, March 8, at Glorietta Art Center, third level, Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati City. For more informa tion, call 729-79-25.