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Pontillas draws influence from crowded Manila, Pacific Daily News Press Release August 28, 2016 (BAYANIHAN NEWS PAPER, GUAM)
In the short six years since Marcial Pontillas moved to Guam, the artist’s paintings have appeared in several exhibitions, including multiple showcases at the Guam Art Exhibit.
Known as the “Crowd Drawer,” Pontillas often paints a series of crowded scenes, from hungry patrons elbow to elbow in a grocery store, to thousands worshiping at a church.
Painting crowds was a trademark that was born in the Philippines while he was studying art at Far Eastern University in Manila.
“From high school, I was always interested in joining art competitions like poster contests, and I moved to Far Eastern University because there were a lot of contests,” he says. “I was really excited when I started to join these contests and began winning on the spot from my first year.”
In a way, art is in his blood, from his father who works as a draftsman to his brother who also is in architecture.
The visual expression he studied came in the form of classes around his advertising degree, since there wasn’t a major dedicated to fine arts in FEU.
Crowd series
The sight of a busy overpass in Manila was something nearly foreign to him as he began his studies.
“I hate crowds,” the 40-year-old Dededo resident says.
That’s because he’s originally from the sleepy region of Bicol where he didn’t have to battle the hours of human and traffic congestion the way he did in Manila.
But the inspiration has paid off.
“Sobra Na!” was where it got started, a depiction of a sea of people crowded along an overpass and the surrounding area below.
The oil painting was exaggerated from the scene in which he originally witnessed, stretching the clustered bodies along the expanse of the canvas.
“That was the start,” he says. “I didn’t know my painting would take first place. My teacher, my mentor said I have to continue this. You never know if it’s going to be your trademark.”
As a student in Far Eastern University, art was opening doors for the painter, with wins that began with the Shell National Students Art Competition to the cover of the 1996 PLDT-DPC Telephone Directory.
After winning and placing in more than a dozen art competitions, the student turned into teacher and Pontillas began to give back to the university where he learned to perfect his craft.
He taught for 10 years before moving to Guam in 2011 after his petition was granted. His wife and child, however still reside in Manila while his wife works and completes her education.
So far, he’s welcomed the move to Guam, expanding on the crowd series he’s been known for and exploring the vast reaches as a contemporary neo-expressionist.
From his crowd scenes to his abstract work, Pontillas works in layers, adding strata of story or explanation behind each stroke.
A few of his paintings have the addition of large grids placed over it, grids that seem to puzzle upon first view.
One example was a piece originally entitled “Hagåtña Cathedral,” offering a panoramic view of Guam’s capital city with the church in full view.
“I conceptualized it before and then after the museum was built,” he says.
Over the Hagåtña scene, a grid offers the basic outline of the new museum built across the Plaza de España.
As his collection grows, he is currently working with members of production team Project Inspire to put together a solo showcase before the end of the year.
