1.
Fernando Amorsolo
Fishing Scene
1942
Oil on panel
This painting of Amorsolo exhibits a typical fishing scene with characters in fluid and natural motions. This manner of the artist shows expertise in accurately capturing the character of tropical sunset with splashes of a combination of yellow and orange rays which are visible in the vast cloudy sky that truly compliments the blue sea from below. The foreground captures a gentleman who is in his dirty white polo and brown cropped pants wearing a salakot on. The man is helping a lady, in her traditional baro’t saya, carry a large fishing net full of fishes. In the background, a sailboat has set foot on the shore while discharging everything that they have gathered from the sea. A kalesa is also nearby collecting and gathering the fishes from the sailboat.
2.
Jose Joya
Aleng may Salakot
1953
Oil on canvass
Beneath a plain dark gray background, this painting of Joya features an ale, which means “aged woman” in Tagalog, who is calmly resting on the floor in her usual white t-shirt paired with a green skirt which flows all the way down to her ankles. Her eyes are all droopy and her frown shows nothing but an exhausted old woman. With her dark brown hair loosely tied to a ponytail, a towel draped around her neck and a salakot resting on her legs, it is obvious that she is worn out from her daily toil. The ale looks as though she is about to give up like a fragile glass that is going to shatter into a million little pieces. Although simple in composition, it is no doubt that this painting is true to form in Philippine character.
