Ayala Museum Showcases Heart Evangelista’s ‘Oceans Apart’ Paintings On Jan. 30-Feb. 10

One of entertainment and showbiz’s most beautiful actresses, Heart Evangelista, is holding an exhibition of her paintings “Oceans Apart” at the Artists’ Space at Ayala Museum in Makati City — free to the public — from Jan. 30 to Feb. 10.

Evangelista, whose real name is Love Marie Ongpauco, is the wife of vice presidential aspirant and Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. She has been concentrating on painting since two years ago whenever she is free from movie, commercial, modeling and television appearances.

She shares to the public her passion for the visual arts which she nurtured in her early youth but now a real part of her focus as a 31-year-old showbiz personality and full-time artist.

“I have always loved painting,” the actress explained. “It’s just that show business came by chance… And that’s when as Heart Evangelista, I could not resist the exciting opportunities it had offered to me in my teens.”

Her first exhibit at ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum in Makati in 2014 was well received, which was an understatement for the 10-day exhibit simply because it was sold-out on the first hour of the opening day. In the art circle, a “sold-out” solo exhibit for a debut is rather “phenomenal.”

Since then, she had two more sold-out solo exhibitions, one at the Gallerie Joaquin in San Juan City and the last one was in Singapore, where she received praises from international critics.

Looking back, she admitted that painting was her first love. While she started painting as a child, she later found it difficult to share her artistic side, a hesitance made even more pronounced by her early celebrity stature.

“I was afraid that people may come up with critical reactions. When you’re a public figure, you’re so open to all the criticisms, judgments. It took a lot of courage for me to come out with a painting because I felt that people might say, ‘Ah so ngayon nagpe-paint na siya.’ Nauna yung pagiging conscious ko… I really just had to be confident, brave and fearless to come out with it,” she said.

Still, the artist prevailed. And the success of her solo exhibit afforded her enough confidence to pursue her passion and seek the sense of fulfillment it will bring.

The experience of being an artist for Love Marie or Heart gives her a kind of “high” that she could not understand. “The feeling is priceless. I just paint every day,” she said.

In her previous exhibits, Love Marie creatively explored varying emotions of women, surrounding them with ambiguous shapes and forms and colors that lend her canvas with throbbing vibrancy.

This time, Heart delves into her childhood memories of having gone fishing with her father, Rey Ongpauco. “It was kind of our thing, he had wanted as a boy, which was why he brought me along hiking or fishing.”

She draws her inspiration from what she remembers from those days. “I love painting fish. It’s just a never-ending flowing idea, a fantasy place with so many colors,” she said as she prefers the aesthetic style carrying a hint of Gustav Klimt and influences that include Paul Klee, Frieda Kahlo, and Juvenal Sanso.

By focusing on fish for the “Oceans Apart” collection, Heart ventures into a favorite subject of art for decades now — from primitive culture to ancient civilizations, through the modern times.

There are the decorative renderings of the Greeks and Romans that had mythological significance. The Realists later depicted marine life that became popular, until the abstractions of modern artists like Matisse, Picasso, Klee, and many more.

The contemporary nature artists tend to paint live fish in idealized settings, a style with roots in the 17th century still life and oriental brush paintings. The fish have been an important theme in art and their use has been highly symbolic, as in Japan and China.

The symbolic meaning of fish includes fertility, creativity, femininity, good luck, happiness, and knowledge. In Christianity, the fish serves as a symbol of abundance and faith as observed in the Biblical story of fishes and loaves of bread.

There are Biblical references to Christ and his disciples being “fishers of men,” where man is represented as the transformational fish and the ocean as the symbol of the abyss of sin in which man finds himself.

In addition, pagan traditions recognize the fish as a feminine symbol of fertility. Water is a natural emblem of the flow of the Divine Mother principal, and as such, all creatures of the water (including fish) are aspects of the fertility and power of the female deity.

There’s so much that Love Marie has to offer, be it instinctively or not. Suffice it to say that her dedication for the craft will initially indicate where she will bring her audience in this aesthetic journey. (PNA) SCS/LOR/EBP