Botanical Illustrations+ by Jose Valerio

 





My Tweet from September 25: Here are some watercolor samples from Jose Valerio, our country’s very own contemporary John James Audubon and more. I want to cry now not because my works couldn’t be as good as his but because they’re absolutely beautiful to look at and imbibe.
______________

UPDATE for today, October 21: About one month ago on September 19, I read on his FB page just today that Mr. Valerio already died, due to COVID-19 complications. I am shocked to learn of this as I wanted to chat with him again, check up on him and just look at his paintings but now suddenly couldn't. The next best thing to do is to save his shared pictures of orchids, flowers, fruits, vegetables, birds, etc all endemic to the Philippine islands we both know and love (him more than I); collage them as they are aplenty and post them here for posterity and reference. So here they are, an assortment of the luscious nature only he can illustrate which is also a collective testament to his imperishable genius and generosity of heart.















RIP Jose Valerio. You’re the first casualty of COVID I will have known and truly miss and one of the few Filipino artists I discovered on my own & genuinely admired. Maybe you can paint the dogs you will meet in heaven for a change not that there aren't any birds and lush plant life waiting for you there as well 🙂.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Ears-ter!

Image
Today is Easter Sunday! Not wanting to pass it up like it was an ordinary day but the beginning of the Advent Season and the end of Lent in the Christian Calendar;  I thought I'd post something special...like this cool Van Gogh Cake art I snagged somewhere on the internets . I wish I'd have a cake as beautiful as this one on my birthday. What follows by the way , is an earful of self-advice that could easily apply to Vincent as well ie, if he were still alive.   This is probably his best form of resurrection though… as icing on a cake, just   like how he would thickly apply paint on a canvas.  Alas, all I have is the Art I get and freely give and although they're not flattering all the time, they're also non-fattening.  It's N O T y e t   my birthday though. It's just a reminder of what's unspokenly in store for me come  May 20, my 60th!  Can you believe it? 00001100001000011100000011100000110001100010000011100111100011000110001100 BONUS Content: OMG. He
Read more

Fuck Imelda and her minions!

Image
Choose your battles wisely. Today I choose to wear black in solidarity with the people who remember this day as a day in Philippine History Infamy when Martial Law was declared as Presidential Proclamation No. 1081. I don’t need to elaborate our collective consciousness any further because if you’re still breathing, then you know. NO to the Marcoses who wrecked this country, robbed it of hope and continue to rob it and wreck it mindlessly! Just like genius, idiocy has no limits. At least genius would know how to maintain good composure. So I say vive la différence! Between them and me, let's see who has more mileage. People of the Philippines, if you don’t know where you stand, know the difference between right and wrong or light from dark and choose to be in the dark rather than embrace the light in front of all of us, then anything goes for you. If at this point in time and it’s been 51 years of trickle-down hell, you don’t even care to think about what’s good for you, then no
Read more

Ciao Febbraio!

Image
Febbraio in a GIF Ciao Febbraio! Ciao è Ba-boo! Cougar t-shirt. Puma shoes.   I didn't even know it was a Leap Year until Feb 29 came today!  Maybe I really am a cat; born a cat and trying to dive in my own kitty litter of an endless Dune sandbox which I had the opportunity to grab in the mall yesterday. I went to the gym early so I can watch the movie Dune on its opening day unhampered by the usual swarm of mall-goers/movie viewers I anticipated would greet me.  As it turned out, only five people were watching the movie and it was the "weekday crowd"  so...  it wasn't really a problem. Anyway, because of this, I had many chances of getting fairly good selfies here and there.   As someone might say, "the early cat catches the worm" :-)  and that I definitely deftly did. I hope. Still Celebrating Dune 2 Garfield Movie Dune Poster Parody My Ballpen Art of a Scrapbook Entry
Read more