How I painted the Philippines' Largest Abstract Painting

"Alab ng Sining" at 62 feet high and 40 feet wide, stands as the Philippines' largest abstract painting.

I am no stranger when it comes to painting large works. In my senior year in high school, just a few weeks shy from graduation, my teacher in Art Appreciation asked me to do a mural which would cover the grandstand of the Philippine Science High School. The mural served as a background to our commencement exercises weeks later.

The eye (and hand) for creating large works also came naturally because I spent my summers helping out in the backyard of our family's outdoor advertising business in Bacolod. Way back then, billboards were not printed but painted. Painters would do lettering and paint figures on Galvanized Iron panels nailed on to wood.

By watching and helping out the painters as a teenager, I was able to see how paint was properly applied and executed. Little did I know that all of these would lead up to the day wherein I could create the Philippines' largest abstract painting.

The painting I created is too big to display in an art gallery, thus I hung it on an EDSA billboard.

The artwork has already been carried in Artplus Magazine, Adobo Magazine, Manila Bulletin, Inquirer, and PeopleAsia.

Although execution for this took a week, preparation for it took months and the ideation for it, years. There was no better time to execute this but on February 2021, right in time for the celebration of the National Arts Month 2021.

Thus, here I was, a Metro Manila-based artist from Negros painting the Philippines' largest abstract painting measuring 62 feet high by 40 feet wide.

The title "Alab ng Sining" speaks about the flame of art which I have always had, even during the days when I was working in an ad agency on non-art related matters.

The work is now displayed on an EDSA billboard located in Mandaluyong City at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenues until March 30, 2021.