Ariola, Ewen Garret A.

2012-09258
Art Stud 1

November 21, 2014

Artwork: The Rice Harvest Series by Jose Yap Baguio

The following artworks, which are very similar with each other, but with notable differences
are part of Jose Yap Baguios The Rice Harvest Series, which dates back to 2012. At least four of
these paintings were displayed in the Heritage Gallery in the UP Faculty Center. The gallery displayed
these paintings for sale for a price of around Php 100,000. These photos were directly taken from
photographing the paintings with a smartphone camera.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)
By just looking at these artworks, an observer can get a joyous or exciting feeling, just like the
feeling that comes with harvesting rice. Because I am not an art connoisseur, I choose to compare these
paintings to Fernando Amorsolos Planting Rice. The artworks of these two artists are the same such
that they give the audience a certain feeling of joy, however, in contrast to the painting of Amorsolo,
the subjects of these paintings do not seem happy. The harvesters seem to portray some degree of
difficulty in their work. This may be because the harvesters faces are covered by their hats or are turned
away, thus, I am inclined in thinking that the artist wants to depict the difficulty in harvesting rice.

Because of this, the Baguio gives a degree of reality in his work such that the conditions shown in his
paintings are true to life.
This artwork reminds me of the usual kindergarten drawing which includes a rice field, a bahay
kubo, mountains in the background and the sun and clouds. Essentially, the foregrounds of all four
paintings show the same thing. The middle ground composed of trees and bahay kubos seem to get
nearer to the foreground from paintings 1 to 4. The paintings clearly show linear stratification or
layering. The persons are located in straight lines and this gives the painting some degree of
inflexibility or rigidity. It is almost as if the artist is too organized, especially in painting 2. One of the
major differences of the four paintings is the mountainous background. Particularly in paintings 1 and
2, the artist gives more emphasis on the mountains. In painting 1, the mountains are wider and more
distant, which gives the feeling of depth and vastness. In contrast to painting 1, the mountains in
painting 2 are quite nearer. The way the artist uses shading and slanted lines to give the mountains their
ridges seems to make the mountains disconnected from the painting as a whole. The touch of blue and
paleness of the mountains suggests the mountains are far, but in fact they are near. The mountains and
trees also seem too large in this painting. This is what I dont like in painting 2, the seemingly misplaced
middleground and background.
Comparing paintings 1 and 2 with paintings 3 and 4, the latter seems to give a more realistic
effect. The impression of light on the surfaces of the harvesters clothes were quite emphasized in
paintings 3 and 4. One thing that I dislike about painting 3 is that the lower two-thirds of the painting
is saturated with persons who are evenly spaced. The placement of the subjects was not done well.
Because of these, the persons become, at least to me, eyesores and the foreground is drowned and
underappreciated. A viewer may be forced to look at the bewildering number of persons, which are the
main subjects of the painting. Also, the persons in the middle ground seem to be too big for their place
in the painting. Due to this, painting 3 gives poor perspective of size. In simple terms, theres too much
going on. Furthermore, to me, it seems that painting 3 needs to be wider, like painting 1. A wide view

contributes to the feeling of being in a rice field. The narrower view in painting 3 adds to its poor
proportioning.
In terms of aesthetics, another thing that bothers me is that the clouds in painting 3 are too
simple. It is as if a child drew them. We know that clouds are not actually shaped this way. The rest of
the painting seem realistic, while the clouds are not.
In painting 4, it is obvious that the artist does not aim to give a realistic effect to the painting
at all. Similar to painting 2, the mountainous background seems to be very out of place compared to
the painting. The color of the mountains suggest that it is very far away but its size is too large. It seems
as though the artist just put the mountain without thinking. Another thing that seems to bother me is
that the impression of light was to some point overemphasized in the persons clothes. Because of the
equal spacing of the lines, this gives some feeling of rigidity and repetitiveness. The proportions of the
foreground, middleground and background is quite bad. The background occupies more than half of
the painting while the background is reduced to a tiny view of the mountains.
In terms of color usage, the artist was successful in depicting a typical Philippine sunny day in
all the paintings. There is a tinge or glow of the color yellow when viewing the painting as a whole.
This contributes to the excitement felt in viewing pastoral scences.
It is therefore obvious that my favorite painting is painting 1. First of all, in terms of the
background of mountains, this painting most accurately places the mountains in their rightful place.
Second, the persons in this painting are not oversized or to many in number. The persons positions
are not too rigid and they are more scattered. Thus, the viewer can also appreciate the middleground
and the background aside from the foreground. Next, the trees are rightfully sized such that the
middleground is well placed. There is gradual shrinking of the trees and because of this, the
middleground has a liberal distance between the foreground and the background. In total, the
proportion of the subjects in painting 1 is well-done. It is also the widest among the four paintings. In
the case of pastoral paintings, having a wide landscape view is better because it emphasizes the feeling

of being in a rice field. Thus, this adds to the reality of the painting when one views the bigger picture.
Also, based on the line strokes and color usage of the artist, painting 1 seems to be the most realistic.
According the gallery in-charge, the artist intentionally produced more than one copy of
essentially the same painting, although some changes are very evident. With one painting, the artist
can gain up to four times the earnings. This is good in terms of financial gain, but I do think that when
an artist simply replicates his work, some of the passion is lost for the succeeding works. But, it is also
possible that through repetition, a better artwork can be produced. Thus, because of this, I think that
some of his paintings are actually more artistic than others. For example, I think painting 1 is the most
beautiful of all, but I cannot tell whether it is was the first or last painting to be made. Since these
paintings are to be sold, it cannot prevented that some customers will get a better artwork. But then
again, a paintings beauty is subjective and the beauty of an artwork to some extent, also depends on
the viewer. Of course, if I were a painter, I have to have a favorite among the different versions of the
same painting that I have made.
To summarize, this series of paintings depict some degree of reality such that the difficulty of
harvesting rice is shown. However, the viewer receives a calming feeling due to the pastoral scene. At
least in my perspective as a non-art connoisseur, but an art studies student, painting 1 is the most artistic
and beautiful painting of the series because the subjects are well-placed and the proportion of the
foreground, middleground and background is done well. Also, unlike the other paintings, one can get
a good sense of distance in this painting. Finally, its landscape view and length contributes to that
calming feeling one gets when looking at a pastoral scene.