Artist Stevesantos opens the art calendar year for West Gallery (SM Megamall) with Landscapes, featuring a collection of his latest works in Japanese ink on paper. On view from January 13 to 25, Landscapes offers a stark contrast to Stevesantos’s earlier pieces. The new collection is mostly, if not completely, devoid of color, as it focuses on mood and perspective.
Stevesantos says that the tone of his works has been mostly by accident, as he continues to find ways to express landscapes as uniquely as he can with the aid of available art materials and immediate personal experiences. He began working in August, amid brewing stormy weather that can be gleaned from most of the works. Japanese ink has actually helped him churn out desired visual effects, including balancing the unpredictable with the more structured , set elements in the composition. Not only do the viewers see the prevailing calmness in the fields, but also the unknown threats that nature can unleash. With the use of Chinese and flat brushes, Stevesantos has been able to manipulate and, at the same time, let the images freely take shape.
He also leans more on his imagination than actual settings in composing these images, preferring to let the brush do its work and the ink to flow naturally. Stevesantos is not too wary about initial letdowns, confident that they can lead him to create something new that may even surprise him in the end. It is all a part of the spontaneity of art making.
Stevesantos has been painting landscape for many years, and what excites him to this day is the randomness and the flexibility that the subject matter offers. It allows him to try different things and play around with form and composition to suit his current dispositions.
Stevesantos also does book designs, but has now devoted more time to painting. While he can summon his imagination to compose magnificent landscapes, he is just as adept with portraiture, which he also plans to exhibit in the near future. He has reaped several art citations since breaking out in the scene in the 1970s. He has designed for both local and foreign publications, among them, The Asset, Asiamoney, Euromoney and Lifestyle Asia Magazine. He has also discovered the wonders of digital art, and briefly worked as web director of The Digital Asset in 2000.
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