Arts | Association aims to hone art skills among children

Didith Canasa

A Filipino association has once again held a summer painting workshop, in response to the need for summer activities for its members and compatriots’ children.
The Quezonian Association of Macau previously held the summer workshop for youngsters, led by artist Didith Canasa, between the years 2003 and 2009. However, the workshop was halted from 2009 to 2014 and only resumed last year.
According to the president of the association, Wabbet Cabungcal, the workshop’s aim was to unleash the artistic skills of Filipino youngsters in the region, particularly important in an era with easy and wide­spread access to technology and the internet amongst young people.
“To avoid using gadgets,” stressed Cabungcal.  “They’re using them everyday and this workshop will help them hone their skills, because some children are not aware they [are talented] because there are no workshops to express their talent,” he explained.
Since the workshop only resumed last year, Cabungcal hopes to hold more exhibitions of the young artists’ paintings in the future.
This year the association, along with Canasa, organized an art exhibition in Rui Cunha Foundation, featuring nearly 80 paintings in acrylic, watercolor and charcoal. The exhibition will be showcased at the foundation’s headquarters until August 15.
With the name “The Bulilit [little] Artists of Macao featuring Michael Angelo L Cabungcal,” the exhibition celebrates the comeback of the group of little artists.
In the exhibition, some 40 artworks of Canasa’s mentee, Michael Angelo L Cabungcal, were featured, who has been an art student since the opening of the painting workshop more than a decade ago.
He is also continuing his studies at the Academy of Arts of Macao Polytechnic University.
Canasa said that they used to hold exhibitions in the region after each painting workshop, but since the activity was halted for five years, her students in the region have stopped painting.
“I think it’s a waste if we do not continue to hold [the] workshops because there are children who are really talented. We have to come back because if not, the bulilit [little] artists may not continue to paint,” she explained to the Times.
According to Canasa, back in 2003, they  held the workshops in public places, including Ruins of St Paul and Guia Lighthouse, due to limited availability of indoor spaces.
“Before we started we went to the education bureau to ask for [a] permit [to hold workshops…] we were everywhere, under the trees even, because there was no place to stay [before],” she said.
The artist hopes to reach out to Chinese youngsters as well, however she sees the language barrier as a problem, thus she instead focuses on a small group of English-­speaking children.
Currently, she’s holding workshops on acrylic painting for 10 Filipino youngsters in a Filipino pastoral house and she aims for the finished paintings to be displayed in their next exhibition in 2018.