Lucia Mangapit Valdez proves that age is not defined by numbers.
Nearing 92 years old, Lucia Mangapit Valdez continues to possess a bagful of witty comments, a contagious aura of positive spirits, and you can still talk to her about anything under the sun.
And after gaining accolades and recognitions in the field of art throughout her life, she still thinks of trying out other things, such as filmmaking, for 2011.
After walking the earth for nine decades, Lucia still paints, specializing in non-traditional art and she is definitely not your ordinary human. She is still completely lucid, and believe it or not, she still has 20-20 vision. She travels at least once a month from her hometown in Batac, Ilocos Norte to Manila by bus to help out in the gardens of the Manila temple of The Church of Jesus of the Latter Day Saints. She still eats the Iloko empanada, despite its oozing cholesterol content, and she still takes problems with a smile and a positive perspective. Seeing her in her usual humble clothing and pulled-up hair can instantly remind anyone of their sweet grandmother.
But her amazing present self is made more colorful by her remarkable past.
Beyond her modest physical attributes, Lucia Mangapit Valdez has stunned the world with her non-traditional art, making her the first Filipina to be included in the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London, the Chelsea Art Society, and her paintings now hang in very important offices and homes all over the world. Her art works were recognized as the pieces de resistance in an art exhibit in Germany and she was coined as the Ilokana Impressionist in Europe.
“I never chose it—it is natural in me when I paint. I did not paint because I wanted to have money. I paint because I love to paint. I am inspired by something that I feel rather than something that I can see,” says Lucia.
She is wife to one of the first Filipino diplomats, Casimiro Valdez, the endeared uncle of former presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Ferdinand Marcos. And though being associated with these families is the immediate hypothesis on how Lucia’s success came about, knowing her story completely would prove otherwise.
“Having known Auntie Lucing all my life, I have witnessed how she admirably strived to be a source of hope and pride to her family, and a vessel of love and encouragement especially to her husband and my uncle, Casimiro Valdez. Together, they lived their years in the Philippine Foreign Service with their heads held high and hearts brimming with pride and nationalism,” says former president Fidel V. Ramos, whose foundation, the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation (RPDEV), together with Media Touchstone Ventures Inc. (MTVi), is publishing a coffee table book on the life of Lucia Valdez.
Lucia was born to a modest family in the historic town of Batac, Ilocos Norte. She earned her degree in Education at the University of Manila and her degree in Fine Arts and Theater at the American University. She later studied Fashion Design at the Traphagen School of Fashion and she held shows and lectures in different parts of the United States.
However, though her undeniable talent in fashion design showed a clear direction for a career, Lucia chose to leave that path behind for love.
She married diplomat Casimiro Valdez and joined him in his journeys. Little did she know that this would be a key to bring her passion in painting to the world through a series of miracles.
After her debut at the 80th Annual exhibit of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London in 1965, her art was further spread as her husband was assigned to different countries including the United States, Singapore, New Zealand, and Germany. What’s notable about her is that she never fails to spread her blessings even more.
Since she sold her first painting in 1965 until today, a major part of it goes to charity. And for more than four decades, she has been delivering art lectures and demonstrations to encourage budding artists not to be afraid and try painting their passion on canvas.
Passion on canvas
Lucia’s painting style is dynamic. Even if Lucia became known for her modern paintings, she too, started with traditional art, as it is imperative for any painter to learn first how to imitate. As she mature into her artistic expression and embraced her freedom to create, a mélange of colors creating light and shadows were blended together to form magnificent works of art.
“You must not be troubled about your personal style, because it is your own exploration. It is a wonderful experience to go to museums and galleries to see modern art as well as traditional art. In fact, you’ll soon realize that the works of the great masters have evidence of abstract design, because they were products of originalities, not imitations of nature, but ideas derived from nature,” explains Lucia.
Whenever Lucia is asked what inspires her to paint, her immediate answer is “nature.” She has a deep relationship with nature and in her eyes, leaves and flowers are not mere pigmented objects but an endless variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and textures.
Lucia’s paintings can immediately bring life to any blank wall. The variety of her strokes provides the movement of a soft breeze blowing in the painting. The sharp shadows cast by brilliant sunlight and the bright colors of a flower field depict the serenity offered by a Sunday afternoon in an idyllic paradise.
In a report about Lucia’s works published in the Hamburger Abandblatt in Germany, it stated: “For a few days, the feeling of summer came to us. The Filipina shows us her flamboyant colors, adding enamel-like charm to severity and abstract compositions. Beautiful combinations of green and brown give us an idea of her home country. Rice-planting women with large straw hats, towering trees, fragrant flowers, rocks, and the sea are lying under a delicate veil. The figures of young girls and boys possess the sensitive disposition of the natural people. The artist is never at a loss for her motives, techniques, and means.”
To document her life and her works, a coffee table book entitled Colors of Light: The Life Story and Paintings of Lucia Mangapit Valdez authored by the Ramos family biographer, Melandrew T. Velasco, will be launched on January 14, 2011. It is published by Ramos Peace and Development Foundation and Media Touchstone Ventures Inc. and it features Lucia’s interesting life story, her selected paintings, and her poems which she wrote for each of these artworks. Copies can now be pre-ordered through the Colors of Light page on Facebook.
“After a series of interviews and interactions with Auntie Lucing, I just realized the wisdom of FVR in causing the publication of the Colors of Light. Auntie Lucing is not just a painter, a poet, and a diplomat’s wife—she has served as a shining light who has lived and gifted by the Almighty to be in her nineties to share her brightness to the people around her,” concludes book author Melandrew Velasco.
source: mb.com.ph/
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