Layug, SM to host clay sculpting training for students

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug will be hosting a training, in cooperation with SM City Pampanga, on clay sculpting for students this coming July.

The event aims to spark interest in the arts among younger generations. Layug said that the training will give students needed information and basic skills on how to go about with sculpting. Clay sculpting can branch out into actual carving.

Interested participants may coordinate with Layug at his shop in Betis, Guagua. The training will be manned by Layug’s brother, Kapampangan woodcarving artist Edwin Layug.

The Guagua-born artist, who now resides in Pulilan town in Bulacan, is one of the most renowned artists in Bulacan and the region, having made a mark in the field of ecclesiastical art.

Layug is now one of the most popular names in the local wood sculpture industry. The artist is famous for his use of traditional polychrome style mixed with an obvious Spanish influence in polychrome technique, something which he has acquired from a recent training in Spain.

He is already considered a master in his art. Facebook pages devoted to religious art collectors refer to him as among the “young masters” of the craft.

Layug is the first Filipino to install a full altar in Singapore.

He made the Pope Pius X Priory retablo along Upper Thompson Road in Singapore. The priory is under the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is an international traditionalist Catholic organization founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The SSPX has presence in various countries in Europe and Asia.

The Layug brothers both had their basic skills honed through clay sculpting.