I.

Fernando Amorsolo
Fishing Scene
1942
Oil on Panel
BASIC DOCUMENTARY
A. THE BASIC SEMIOTIC PLANE
Visual elements

line value lineart is almost nonexistent and is instead blended into the colors
color sunset colors, soft highlights on the foreground and middleground but really intense oranges
on the background; the waters have an almost greenish hue that slightly contrasts with the blues
and purples of the sky; warm hues on the left that softly fades into cooler hues on the right
texture normal brush textures, along with the natural grain of the wooden panel board showing
through the paint; the details are rendered well and are thus blended softly into the figures; harder
edges at the foreground that become softer into the back
shape shapes of the figures stay true to how they appear in real life
composition in space follows the 1/3 rule, with the subjects not appearing at the direct center but
at the left side of the piece instead; has a foreground, middleground and background
movement movement is to the left; this can be observed with the way the waves of the sea crash
into the shore and how the subjects of the painting lean a bit towards the left

Medium and technique Oil on panel <try to find out if he does grisaille and glazing and shit like that>;
light-colored paint layered on top of darker-colored paint
Format rectangular panel board, huge size; framed
Other feature(s) - the figures get less detailed the further it is at the back; this is probably due to the
desire of the artist to have the viewers focus on the foreground and have the background complement the
foreground

B. THE ICONIC PLANE OR THE IMAGE ITSELF

Subjects are relaxed, have a casual air to them

Subjects are not directly centered, making the piece asymmetrical
The gaze of the viewer is directed to the man and woman carrying fish; this was aided by the
artists placement of sunlight behind them, as highlights tend to catch the eye really easily
Man and woman at the front are isolated from the figures behind them
A romanticized portrayal of reality

C. THE CONTEXTUAL PLANE

The piece invokes a warm, friendly tone and brings to mind the scenes of fishing, as the title of the piece
suggests.
The man and woman seem to be content in their livelihood. The fact that they are fishing suggests that the
location is mostly rural and agricultural. Because of the calm and casual air of the figures in the painting,
one can infer that the setting is supposed to appear peaceful. The unsaturation of the colors makes the
painting easy to look at.

It probably relays references to the Spanish colonial era, where the Filipino people were made to wear tops
made from sheer abaca or pia fiber; horse-drawn calesas were still the main mode of transportation on
land and sailboats, at sea; a time where the air was still clean and settlements near the sea were few.
Lastly, a notable aspect of the work is the prominence of Amorsolos ideals of feminine beauty in the female
subject.
Basically, Amorsolo painted an image of his utopia.

D. THE AXIOLOGICAL OR EVALUATIVE PLANE

I think that, of Amorsolos ten thousand something paintings, this was one of the pieces he wanted to last
for a long, long while. I observed that he used wooden panel instead of stretched canvas, which would have
been eaten away by the oils as time passed by. And he painted it on such a huge panelboard, too; surely he
didnt mean for this one to be regarded as a mere souvenir for the visiting Americans as some of Amorsolos
critics claimed?
If I were to judge the painting, I would say that it would be a very valuable piece. I am quite familiar with
how painting with oils work and the effort Amorsolo must have put into this piece couldnt be paid for by any
amount of money. He would have had to dilute his paints, find the right combination of colors, paint on such
a huge space, then varnish everything in around a years time. His colors are really natural-looking as well,
and it takes skill to find the right colors so that not one of them would look out of place.
The Japanese officially occupied the Philippines on May 8, 1942. Because of the war, Amorsolo lost access to
his beloved references in the then rural places of Marikina and Antipolo. Gathering art materials became
harder for him, and his clients lessened. His paintings took on a darker tone. Somehow, this makes me think
that Fishing Scene might have been one of his last few brightly-lit paintings for the time being.
It is such an aesthetically-pleasing piece (by traditional standards) and I could just feel the painting trying to
tell me a story about the past. And from what Ive seen, it is a very interesting tale where it was still
acceptable for women to fish alongside men, the only thing that polluted the towns were horse excrements,
and Filipinos lived in an illusion of a peaceful age.
II.
ANTIPAS DELOTAVOS AGOS

A. BASIC DOCUMENTARY
Via Crucis
2016
Installation
(Free standing Paraiso painting, vinyl tiles, 14-life size figures covered with Ilocano abel blankets, vinyl
cutout stickers)
B. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ARTWORK AND PHILIPPINE SOCIETY AND HISTORY
Some notable symbols:

Via Crucis lit. The Stations of the Cross

Monarch butterfly the dead going back to the earth to remind the living of what has happened
Blank canvas and the stark contrast of the plain white from the dark paintings in the background
The illusion of depth

Paintings of war in the background

14 dead bodies wrapped up in Ilocano ethnical cloth