Ronilo Abayan

Ronilo Abayan is no stranger to Filipino Art lovers as well as the ordinary people; his ingenious works include breathtaking landscapes, congregation of colorful tribespeople, naturalistic wildlife and a host of portraits of prominent world leaders- Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, King Abdullah of Jordan, Mahatir Mohamed, Nerendra Modi, Lee khan Yew, etc. Already, Ronilo Abayan’s portraits of several world leaders had been presented to them by President Duterte. it was Learned that he simply takes three to four days to finish such a piece of art.

Ronilo is not from a family of renowned painters, and he never attended an elite school of visual arts. Instead, he had humble beginnings. As seven years old, he used to draw on walls of his modest home using a piece of charcoal fished out from his mother’s kitchen. “My mother took no offense of my behavior about ruining her walls with my charcoal sketches which initially had no precise shape or meaning, instead, she admired them”

 Images

As a youngster. He kept on drawing his dream images on whatever material he can get hold of- paper, walls, pieces of wood, etc.

As he entered adulthood, he found a job as a security guard, then as a construction site helper. He was not ecstatic about these jobs and could not find energy to please his bosses as his mind was completely elsewhere. Soon enough. He was fired from his security guard job when his supervisor caught him painting pictures while on duty.

 Then a friend introduced him to a job where he was supposed to draw hoardings for movies, getting a step closer to realizing his dream. He mastered his painting skills on the job. Later as a hobby, he started doing on-the-spot caricatures for shoppers at the store. “A lot of people can draw but the characteristics, resemblance of the actual person, in other words the soul of the character on the portrait is hard to capture” Abayan says.

Encourage

“I want to encourage the next generation of artists that art is a profitable profession, and I want to invite the youngsters to keep pursuing their dreams till they reach the pinnacle.” His two daughters and the son too have taken after their father and are talented painters. Not to mention his first grandchild of four years old has joined a group exhibition lately and has sold two of her paintings.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.