The exhibition “Paint and Hiraya, Laro’ and Likha” held at the Museum of Ramon Magsaysay in the town of Castillejos was a success.
According to Dr. Efreign Earl N. Villanueva, the exhibit is a project of the Castillejos Association of Neo-Classical Visual Arts Specialists (CANVAS) and it was launched from October 8th to November 12th this year.
It was formally opened through a simple ceremony attended by Noel B. Gaton, Shrine Curator II of the Ramon Magsaysay Museum; Mr. Elmer Borlongan, International Visual Artist; Sangguniang Bayan members of Castillejos, Cecil F. Rafanan and Albert R. Tugadi; Sta. Maria Punong Barangay Susan Soria and other guests.
Villanueva founded CANVAS in 2013 and it is an organization of young people in Castillejos with talent in the three traditional visual arts, painting, sculpture and architecture. Villanueva is currently a teacher at Castillejos National High School under the Special Program in the Arts whose main program focuses on the arts throughout the province of Zambales.
The program of the organization is the creation of Free Hand Drawing, Posters, Slogans, Collages, Murals, Landscapes, Portraits, Sketching as well as Graphics and Digital Arts such as animation, photography and digital collage.
The work also includes the newest type of visual art called Mixed Media Arts where it is a mixture of materials that can only be found in the environment and recycled from waste such as scraps of wood or plywood, ketchup or sacks of flour, grains or seeds of vegetables, bark and stems of wood, straw and any other local indigenous materials.
For almost 10 years, it has brought home various honors due to its winning in various fields of visual art competition from Division, Regional and even National.
And to supply the needs of the youth members of the organization they sell their works and also painting services in classrooms, barangay plazas, back-drops of contests and business establishments. They also do of brochures, pamphlets, flyers and others.
“Currently there are more than 100 of its active members and it continues to increase and will be expected to draw new histories in the town of Castillejos,” Villanueva said. (Dante M. Salvana)