Contempo

• Why do artists create art

  People create art primarily as a tool for communication. But throughout history, we can see that artists create art for reasons other than communication.
• Reasons artists create art

  • Recognition
  • Worship
  • Impulse
  • Self-expression
• Recognition


  • Some artists create art in hopes of gaining fame and fortune. Some artists use art as their means of livelihood, as seen with many visual artists, musicians, and television and movie stars.
• Worship


  • The many religious structures in the ancient world such as the pyramids, Hindu temples, and the temples of the Greeks and Romans. Songs were also created for worship as evident in many medieval hymns and in one of the oldest surviving music found in Syria dated around 1400 BCE, which is believed to be about the offerings of the goddess Nikkal. Christian iconography is found in the majority of artworks produced during the Middle Ages up to the Modern period. One such contemporary artist is the late Joey Velasco (1967-2010) who was well known for his rendition of Christian-themed artworks, such as the Hapag ng Pag-asa (2005), which is his version of the Last Supper with street children depicted as the apostles.
• Impulse


  Some artists create art because they are driven by impulse. It is their passion, and nothing makes them happier than doing their chosen art. These artists consider art as life and spend their time doing nothing but such.
• Impulse in music


  • National Artist for music Levi Celerio (1910-2002) is credited to have written over 4,000 songs, some of which are "Pasko na Naman" (1965), "Kahit Konting Pagtingin" and the lullaby "Sa Ugoy ng Duyan" (1948).
• Self-expression


  Artist, without a doubt, create an art for self-expression. They express ideas and emotions that might not be adequately conveyed through words. Each artwork is a reflection of each individual artist's personality and experiences, making each artwork unique.
• Filipinos are very social people and this is reflected in their art, most specially in their traditional art.
• Philippine Contemporary Art is an example of integral arts that is essentially communal and unitive in language.
• Filipino art often gives more importance on how it affects the artist's society rather than its impacts on the individual.
• Visual Elements of Art

  • Hue
  • Value
  • Saturation
• Hue


  The basic or pure color, represented in the color wheel
• Value


  The lightness and darkness of color. A light color or tint is the result of adding white to a hue, while a dark color or shade results from adding black to a hue.
• Saturation


  The brightness and dullness of color. It is also referred to as purity of the color. A bright color can be produced by adding more pigment to the same hue, while a dull color can be produced by adding gray or the color's complement to the pigment.
• The color wheel, which is an arrangement of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, is an important tool to identify which colors can work well if used in a certain artwork. Those sets of colors are referred to as color schemes or color relationships.
• Color Schemes


  • Monochromatic
  • Analogous
  • Complementary
  • Split-complementary
  • Triadic
  • Tetradic
• Monochromatic


  This color scheme involves using the same hue but with different gradients of value.
• Analogous


  The analogous color scheme entails the use of three or four adjacent colors in the color wheel.
• Complementary


  The complementary color scheme involves the use of a color and its complement, meaning the color located opposite of the first color.
• Split-complementary


  This color scheme is a close relative to the complementary color scheme. But instead of using the color's complement, this scheme uses the two colors adjacent to the complement.
• Triadic


  This color scheme uses three colors that are of equal distance with each other.
• Tetradic


  Also known as double complementary color scheme, this uses two pairs of complementary colors.
• Painting


  The process of applying color on a flat surface. Forms can be created using a wide variety of materials such as watercolor, acrylic, ink, oil pastel, and charcoal. Surfaces for painting include wood, canvas, cardboard and paper. Painting is considered two-dimensional, meaning it only has height and width.
• Forms of Painting


  • Easel Painting
  • Murals
  • Telon Painting
  • Jeepney and Calesa Painting
  • Collage
• Easel Painting


  The most common form of painting, involving applying color to a board or canvas that is fixed on an upright support called an easel. Easel paintings are meant to be framed and hanged on a wall after creating them.
• Murals


  A huge wall-sized painting. During the 1980's, some artists believed that the mural should be used to impart messages to increase social awareness specially to issues at that time. However, a new form of mural, a portable mural, was developed in order to prevent the mural from being erased from the wall. The portable mural was created by using bold strokes in applying bright colors on pieces of cheesecloth or canvas. Nowadays, murals are created by younger artists through outreach programs carried out by organizations. Just like during the 1980's, these murals still impart messages on nationalism and on social awareness.
• Telon Painting


  A backdrop or background for the stage, used for komedya, sarswela, and sinakulo which are popular forms of theater in the country. Later, even though the popularity of the sarswela decreased, the telon is still used in presentations during carnivals, fiestas, and religious celebrations. The telon was later reduced as a backdrop in a photography studio.
• Jeepney and Calesa Painting


  The calesa is typically painted using one color, with the borders decorated with geometric patterns, repetitive patterns, and/or thin lines. Jeepney painting evolved from calesa painting, with a logo, number, or painting covering the area near the driver's seat and adjacent seats. Typical subject matter of jeepney painting ranges from landscapes to scenes from comic books.
• Collage


  A form of painting that involves combining images in a single artwork, by cutting and pasting materials such as paper, fabric, tin foil and other relatively flat materials onto a board or canvas.
• Themes of Painting


  • Genre Painting
  • Historical Painting
  • Interiors
  • Landscapes
  • Portraits
  • Nudes
  • Religious Painting
  • Still Life
• Genre Painting


  Portrays people in daily activities, such as planting and harvesting rice, a young woman singing in front of guests, barong-barong, vendors, and fiestas. During the contemporary period, genre painting took several directions, including folk genre, cubist depictions of folk or urban subjects, and folk-naive style inspired by children's art.
• Historical Painting


  Depicts a scene from the past, often with a lesson concerning national values.
• Interiors


  Painting of the space inside of a part of a house or a building, revealing the social class of the family living in that particular house, as well as the traits of the people living in it.
• Landscapes


  Paintings that portray natural scenery or urban scenes. Mixed media is now used in creating landscape paintings. Closely related to landscapes are seascapes, which focus on large bodies of water, particularly the ocean or the sea.
• Portraits


  Painting portraying one or more specific individuals, usually depicting the physical characteristics of the subject and seeking to show an understanding of that person's character.
• Nudes


  Paintings that portray the unclothed human figure. Nowadays, a wide variety of materials and styles can be used in painting nudes. Nude painting sessions are conducted in galleries.
• Religious Painting


  Common subjects include a lone religious image, lives of the saints, and scenes based from the Scriptures like the Nativity scene, and the Stations of the Cross.
• Still Life


  A painting that depicts natural or man-made objects that form a composition in a natural setting. There are still modern artists who did still life paintings, such as Ang Kiukok, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, and Manuel Baldemor, each using their own style.
• A lot of styles can be used by artists in painting, ranging from Baroque and Rococo, to impressionism, expressionism, and abstract. In the Philippines, popular styles during the contemporary period include neorealism, hyperrealism or magic realism, and social realism.
• Sculpture


  In contrast to painting, sculpture has three dimensions – height, width, and depth. It is created by either carving, modeling, or assembling parts together.