TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Manila Artist Tony Perez Portrait of Cecilia Brainard

Friday, March 10, 2023

Manila Artist Tony Perez Portrait of Cecilia Brainard

The work area of Manila artist/writer Tony Perez. Note the portrait he made of me on the right side -- I picked this up when I was in the Philippines recently. It is now with my framer here in Santa Monica. Stay tuned for pictures once it's hanging in my office.

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Tony writes:

Welcome to my messy work area! I am not one of those artists who Post picture-perfect photos of their clean studios. In the first place I don't have a real studio. I don't paint for a living, and, after I die, my granddaughters would have no use of one. After I finish all paintings for Maryhill School of Theology I shall redo this room completely and you won't ever imagine that this was how it used to look like.
November was most kind to me. I managed to finish two paintings I was working on alternately, and I am now waiting for them to dry before varnishing. I can't wait to order a new piece of cradled canvas and commence my next one.
Left, _The Pauline Letters_, Right, _Portrait of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (after John Singer Sargent's _Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw_)_. A lot of trophies and decorative items were displaced to accommodate my work space (at some points in time it was a seating area for Miranda's Cove, and then a meeting room, and then an office). Above the painting of Saint Paul is a still life by a Japanese artist, bought at an antique shop by an acquaintance and given to me as a gift. It is a haunted work. Two deceased men speak to me through it, but I keep it exposed. I consider it my painting talisman.

Bio: TONY PEREZ is a creative writer, playwright, poet, lyricist, psychic journalist, painter, and fiber artist. He is one of the 100 Filipino recipients of the 1898-1998 Centennial Artists Award of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. His other awards include the 13 Artists of the Philippines, four National Book Awards from Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas from the Writers Union of the Philippines.

Tony Perez's Art Gallery - https://tonyperezphilippines.blogspot.com/2021/?m=0

#Filipinoartist #Filipinopainter #Philippine artist

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.