By Sophia San Andres
Ronaldo San Andres is a self-taught artist that resides in West Footscray. He paints in acrylics and uses landscapes as his subjects, painting what he sees around him in an impressionistic style that borders realism. His interest in finding beauty in everyday scenes and objects is the crux of his work. The obscure building, the quiet road, or the tree across the street are some of his inspirations. His method to create a good composition is finding the balance between shadow and light. To him, that balance is what makes the painting interesting. He believes that painting his neighbourhood as his subjects gives the area more character. People describe his works as ‘peaceful’, ‘tranquil’, and ‘calm’.
Ronaldo was a professional tennis player back in the Philippines and took up painting as a serious hobby. His love for art came through his love for history. Reading art history since primary school developed his interest in art much further. This love transitioned to oil painting as his main hobby in the early 1990s. He would often go to the library and bookstores to educate himself on painting techniques. Using primarily paper from the sketch pad as his canvas, he painted in his free time. When he started earning more money from part-time tennis coaching, he started buying canvases.
When he moved to Melbourne with his wife in 1998, he stopped painting to start a family. Later on, his daughters asked if he really painted the artworks hanging on their walls, he confirmed that these paintings were his past that he left behind in the Philippines. His girls requested him to do more paintings for them and he couldn’t refuse. In 2016, using his daughters’ art materials, he started painting again. This time it was using acrylics which was more practical for safety reasons. Since then, he never stopped painting.
His art is influenced by the 19th century Impressionists’ loose brushstroke style. A fan of many artistic eras, his favourites are Johannes Vermeer, John Constable, Alfred Sisley, John Singer Sargent, and Edward Hopper (to name a few). He believes that art is an amalgamation of those who have touched someone’s life and their own unique experiences. There is no such thing as a piece that is 100% original and artists are always influenced by art of the past in some way.
He plans to paint until his body won’t allow him to and his dream is to visit all the art galleries in the world.
His first solo exhibition Altona: Shadow and Light, features landscape paintings inspired by Altona scenes. He hopes the exhibition will encourage more artists to share their works with their community and provide an example of reigniting passions from the past.
Where: Louis Joel Gallery, Altona.
When: 22nd of February -12th of March
Images Sophia San Andres
