Category: Art events

PGW Convention

I wanted to write my experience of my first PGW Convention. The kick off event was held at GSIS Museo ng Sining in Manila. It happened the day before StickerCon MNL 2022, so imagine my fully booked schedule lol.

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I joined PGW on January 1, 2022 because I wanted to learn. So why not join a watercolor group? They have events every other month, and the biggest one is the month-long convention. I went there by myself, but I didn’t really mind. I bought great art materials for a discounted price, got freebies, met new people, won raffles, and learned a lot by watching the pros paint. I also joined the art exchange event. Received a bougainvillea painting from sir Manny Vailoces. A person who had a Day Pass ticket received my painting.

The most significant program that happened on that day was the artist personality test by Seeworthy. I realized that I’m a North West kind of person — and I agree 100%. Introverted, quiet, and someone who really loves organization.

I went home inspired, tired, and ready to fight the next day for Stickercon 2022. The convention continued for another month, with artist demos and live selling every other month. Was it worth it? YES!

Office events

I’m not sure why the I wrote this as one of my posts in my OneNote, but okay. Also not sure if I mentioned it here yet, but our office has an art club thing and I’m the head for that. We’re not that active, but we try our best! I even had our club logo printed on the excess spaces of my individual sticker sheets:

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Last October, HR asked us to make a lettering in our pantry blackboard for our office’s anniversary. I suck at lettering, but thankfully I had a lot of officemates who are talented! The above photo was done by Danica, with me as the assistant.

A few weeks after that, we had our Halloween event. HR tasked us again on decorating the pantry and reception area with the halloween theme – Coco. I had no idea why they picked this theme when its years old already, but anyway. We printed a bunch of coco-inspired graphics and taped them everywhere. The banderitas were hand cut by the art club members.

Grabbed the photos from our office’s Photography club. The photos looks so good!

I also did the welcome sign in our reception area. My metallic paints were finally used on something! HAHA. And that’s all of the photos! There also was a committee for our Office Christmas party and Design department party, thankfully we weren’t tasked for those!

And now its time to do all of my pending artwork trades with officemates.

StickerCon MNL 2022

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Our 4th StickerCon MNL experience as January Makers PH. It feels familiar and new at the same time. StickerCon MNL 2022 had a new venue – White Space Manila. We had a member shuffle – Monique opt out this time. Aira (@airadenisee) was invited to our group. There were restrictions in how many people were allowed behind the table due to covid protocols of the venue. There’s no custom pin for artist ids this year.

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This is our first time to table with StickerCon MNL on October. It is the organizer’s favorite event of the year, and we were encouraged to come in costume. I bought bunny and cat ears for our group! Sadly, Hannah and Jean weren’t able to attend that day, so it was just 4 of us. We had a random draw on who were our designated sellers that day – Aira and Shine (@tingeofshine) were our hardworking sellers! Clair (@claircolors) was our seller in front who was assisting interested customers.

Thankful to my officemates and friends who came by – Abie, DJ, Jerome, Ate Jen, etc. They bought some of our group’s stickers! As for me, even if I had no cash in hand that day, I managed to buy stickers. In the surprise of no one, every store had QR code payment options (Gcash, Paymaya, Paypal, even BDO pay). This was pretty useful since some people people cashless payments nowadays. It was a good thing that we offered this as well!

My humble set-up. I bought acrylic trays from Daiso for my individual stickers. I also re-used my acrylic display stand for my other stuff. I should also mention that we loved that there’s a food and drink concessionaire outside. The ones they selected had really good food!

Monique also stopped by StickerCon! I would like to congratulate her as she had her first pottery exhibit last November. We weren’t able to visit sadly due to conflicting schedules.

Thankful for the chance to do this once more. ♥

Urban Sketchers Manila & Kyusi

Last year (2022), I also participated in Urban Sketchers Manila and Urban Sketchers Kyusi events. What is Urban Sketchers? Their mantra can be found here.

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There are two groups that I know of here in Metro Manila – Urban Sketchers Manila and Quezon City. But the sketch locations are not locked within their areas. So we try to participate in events that are nearby.

It was actually Hannah (@hmb_urger) who wanted to join these types of events. So when I heard that they’re active again, we went to Binondo for their Binondo church sketch crawl. USK had permission to paint/sketch inside the church. We wanted to paint the church architecture but sadly it was raining that day.

They gave us a free watercolor paper. We could sketch on it and submit the painting to be included in their Chinatown Museum exhibit, I think? I sketched the church’s intricate column. Sadly forgot to take a photo of the finished piece. My second painting was one of the doors with dramatic lighting. I tried my best. This was done on my strathmore landscape watercolor pad. One of the members also made a video about the event:

Next up is the Quezon City, or Kyusi event at Quezon Memorial Circle.

Most of their events usually falls on a Sunday morning. Hannah was not available for this event due to the morning schedule. She’s not a morning person haha. Shine (@tingeofshine) was available, so we went to this event. Inggo also accompanied us because he wanted to jog.

I used pens for my work because I was too lazy to set up my watercolors. I also prefer this location since I got to draw trees. I’m not really an urban sketcher, but I’ll try everything! It just feels like college plates all over again if I only draw architecture. Instead of drawing the iconic memorial, I drew this local coffee shop.

Overall it was a fun experience. I especially love the latag time, where everyone will display their works on the ground. You could see different styles and techniques which is always interesting. The next thing that I love are the stamps lol. I LOVE getting the stamp whenever I finish an artwork. ♥ I actually got to join another one recently, but that will have a separate post.

See you in another sketch walk this 2023 maybe? ♥

PGW Art Tambay

I finally joined the Philippine Guild of Watercolorists last year (since its already 2023, oops!). The first event that I participated is the August PGW Art Tambay at Art Whale Maginhawa. It is a nude sketching event partnered with Sunday Nudes. It was an event with many firsts – antigen swab test, meet up with PGW, and painting a nude model.

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The order of my paintings are from the beginner up to the end. I think it is a bit obvious on how comfortable I got to painting the last one. I am not used to painting the human figure. (I paint 90% florals, 5% food & 5% fauna). This was a new and welcoming experience to PGW. Everyone was friendly! It was nice to meet everyone there. I’m excited to join future events .

Also can I just put a disclaimer here that I was NOT the nude model. Someone on IG asked if I was the model since we had similar hair. Ugh!

Art whale also had a discount for PGW members so I couldn’t resist buying some art materials for myself . I bought a Strathmore Series 400 Landscape watercolor pad and a Hahnehmuhle watercolor pad. I’ve been using the strathmore watercolor pad in future events (aka Urban Sketchers events – in future posts).

After the event, I met up with Inggo at Old Baguio Cafe so we could finally tick it off the “to eat” list. I also wanted to take reference photos of the desserts because of –Stickercon MNL 2022. More posts to come!

National Museum of Natural History

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May 2022 was a busy month.

Our exhibit “Natural Heritage in Focus: The Philippine Flora and Fauna Art Exhibition” at the Upper Courtyard of the National Museum of Natural History ran from May 24 until October 3, 2022. This is in partnership with Philippine Botanical Art Society and Philippine Fauna Art Society in celebration of National Heritage Month and International Day for Biological Diversity. We went to the exhibit opening last May 24, 2022.

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I went to work in the morning that day and bragged about the exhibit opening to almost everyone in the office HAHA. I was proud of myself and my officemate Trisha as we both got accepted in the exhibit. This was a juried exhibit where 3 botanists judged our artwork based on accuracy and talent. After work, Inggo fetched me from there, and we both went to NMNH in the afternoon.

Hello to Lolong! One of the largest crocodiles in the world.

It was our first time to visit the NMNH after renovation. National Museum visits are now free to public for a long time now, but we didn’t have a chance to visit because its too far from us. When we got there, we were treated as VIPs in the exhibit opening. It was a wonderful experience. Ms. Bing’s speech, even though I’ve heard it numerous times already, had more impact at that time because it felt like all of her hard work came into fruition with this exhibit. I also got to finally meet Sherilyn again! Here are some photos of the exhibit opening. Thank you to Inggo for being our photographer!

Definitely one of the highlights of this year! ♥

Of Art and Wine: Para sa Kalikasan Part II

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Getting back to the present year of 2021: Once again, I submitted another flower painting to Philippine Botanical Art Society for their latest exhibit “Of Art and Wine: Para sa Kalikasan Part II” in collaboration with Conrad Manila.

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I was part of the virtual exhibit since I could not create a 30″ x 40″ watercolor painting due to the limited space in my current home. Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but I’m the ~leader~ of our office art club. I kept on posting art events there on the chance that some of my officemates would be interested in joining. Finally, one of my officemates was interested in joining this exhibit. She has submitted her own 30″ x 40″ acrylic painting for the physical exhibit at Conrad Manila. Amazing!

For this exhibit, I finally decided to buy one of the highest quality paper out there – Arches! I bought mine from The Oil Paint Store since they have a branch near our place. I got the 24″ x 32″ paper size so I could submit the 2nd largest size requirement for the exhibit. I had to draft the required dimensions of the painting using a standard ruler size and placed washi tapes as borders for the painting. And the arches paper, wow! You could tell the difference from the first brush stroke. There’s no blooms, and the paint blends beautifully.

After the exhibit with PhilBas and Conrad Manila, this painting is also exhibited at PNPCSI’s  (Philippine Native Plant Conservation Society Inc.) 6th International Symposium held last November 15 to 19, 2021, in collaboration again with Philippine Botanical Art Society. ♥ This painting is still for sale! Please message PhilBas or PNPCSI if you’re interested!

And after two exhibits, my artwork is part of the next open call poster:

This one will be a challenge for sure! The paintings will be judged first in our home country, and then will be judged the second time in Singapore. My officemate plans on joining as well. Good luck to both of us! ♥

Philippine Flora

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I submitted another artwork for Philippine Botanical Art Society last May for their Philippine Flora exhibit in collaboration with the DFA Philippines!

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My painting is a mabolo fruit. Finding references is hard during this pandemic. Luckily, the tree beside the apartment is actually an endemic tree! This is a mabolo fruit, from the kamagong tree. This is actually the first time that I heard of the fruit, as the wood is more valuable part of the tree!

The exhibit website is found here. Hopefully its still up! ♥

StickerCon 2020 Haul

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It’s time for the haul post! I had a bit of time to explore the venue since we took turns manning our booth. 

Loot from our table: Sawsawan sticker sheet by MNQ Illustration, Skyscapes by TingeofShine, Herbs set by seamountainco, and Pomeranian stickers by Hmb_urger. ♥

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Can I just say that uploading photos in WordPress is a bit of a bitch right now? Whenever I publish a post, the image captions get jumbled up and when I try to edit them, the text separates from the image caption setting. Ugh. 

Calligraphy sticker sheet and Planner stickers by claircolors, But first coffee by MNQ Illustration, and Fashionable girls by HMB_urger.

Caution and Tita sticker from ella_lama, The artist sticker from louisermos

Sunflower strip, white flowers by alfajone, Penguin by Studio Dondon, Cat from meowproject, Proud Plant parent, moon, and rose by Kara Leonardia, Goodbye money by _katepaints

Hannah and I bought cat stickers as pasalubong for Aira lol. 

Anddd I think that’s all of my haul! ♥

StickerCon 2020

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I will finally blog about the most coveted event of the year – StickerCon MNL 2020! We got the group table for our 6 member team. ♥

Our IDS!

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Some last minute promotions lol.

Super happy with our table set-up. Shine bought a pink furry throw that we could use on our table. The table cloth usually used for cons is in black. The throw completes our girly aesthetic HAHA.

Sticker sheets by Clair, Fashion stickers by Hannah, Skyscapes sticker by Shine. ♥

 

On the left side of our table were Clair and Hannah’s individual stickers. ♥

 

More of Hannah’s animal stickers on our mesh wire display.

 

Some of Hannah’s fashion stickers.

Hannah’s post cards. ♥

 

Monique’s best sellers – sticker sheets!

Hello to my post card collection. ♥

 

And my new flower sheets!

How will I describe our experience here? It was tiring yet amazing, crazy fun, and super supportive! The line outside was super long the whole day. We are grateful to everyone who attended and supported all the artists in this event. ♥ Thank you again to the organizers for another successful event. To our friends who visited, promoted, and supported our group. To table mates who understand the craziness of it all. I hope there will be a 4th one after this pandemic. But for now, let’s all STAY SAFE!