Edbon teaches how to Tampisaw

Saturday, January 21, 2012

THE Weekend Workshops at the Museum (WWM) organized a special visual-arts workshop on Watercolor Painting last January 14 to 16 at the Phinma Gallery of The Negros Museum.
Tampisaw, a Watercolor Workshop by Edbon Sevilleno is not for beginners. Beginners will have a hard time catching up with the expert strokes of the hands of the artist, Riyadh-based Negrense artist Edbon Sevilleno.

Although tampisaw is a Hiligaynon word which means “to frolic” or “playfully wade in the water”, working with watercolors is not exactly child’s play. Watercolor is not an easy medium but it evokes fun and the days of childhood where kids would create multi-colored works with wild abandon, without creative boundaries.

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Edbon works as an advertising executive in the Middle East. He was a graduate of Fine Arts at the La Consolacion College and, in his student days, was president of the ARFIEN (La Consolacion College School of Architecture, Fine Arts and Interior Design). As a professional, he has staged eight one-man shows exhibited in the country and outside the Philippines. He has an artistic background as a book illustrator and a comic strip artist in the early 80’s. Today, he does graphic novels for the markets of the United States and the United Kingdom. He initiated Guhit Pinoy made up of a group of OFW illustrators.

The artist is comfortable with other mediums but it is as a water colorist that he had found his niche. For more than 25 years, he has produced water colors involving his favorite subjects: the sacada, Negros landscape, seascapes, and game fowl art (cockfighting scenes), and even encantohanon or local Visayan mythical creatures.

Edbon was one of the artists who organized Gamefowl Art of Negros. BANGIS (Bacolod Negros Gamefowl Artists), the exhibit, brought more than 60 pieces of artwork done by 25 different Negrense artists to the 1st World Gamefowl Expo in January 2011.

The three-day workshop included two days in the Phinma Gallery for lectures on the basics and techniques of water color painting, open forum and, of course, hands-on work for the participants. The area was a profusion of colors, lively chatter, and an exciting mixture of ideas exchanged among the participants many of whom are artists themselves. There was nothing somber at all. It was so much fun. The third day, Monday, was dedicated to plein air or open air painting, this time in the company of veteran Negrense artists.

See the exhibit of works of the graduates of Tampisaw at The Negros Museum. This will run until February 2.