Felix Catarata gathers rural inspirations in his first solo show

For Felix Catarata, the path to becoming an artist was far from straightforward. The second of seven children in a family of modest means, he grew up with limited opportunities to pursue his ambition. Yet his fondness for art began early. He recalls drawing on whatever material he could find from the age of two. By then, his family had moved from Mandaue to Bogo City in northeastern Cebu.

Catarata remembers Bogo as a place of contrasts: an emerging commercial centre and an important transport hub that has retained much of its rural character. “It’s a city, pero bukid na bukid pa rin ang Bogo (It’s a city but Bogo is still very rural),” he says.

When it came time to choose a college course, his parents encouraged him to pursue a more stable profession. He became a teacher, but a stint in factory work in Cebu while waiting to take the board examinations led him back to art. At Maitland-Smith, he painted on furniture and decorative objects, an experience that gave him his first sustained encounter with still life. The work also introduced him to different materials and deepened his interest in drawing and painting.

His late start and lack of formal training might have seemed like disadvantages. Instead, they helped shape a practice grounded in observation, instinct and familiarity with his surroundings. Working outside the conventions of an academic art education, Catarata gradually developed a visual language of his own.

These influences come together in his first solo exhibition, Gathered, a milestone in his long and winding journey towards becoming a full-time artist. Rooted in the rural landscape of Bogo, the works reveal a homegrown sensibility shaped by the place he knows best.

There is a palpable liveliness in Catarata’s still lifes. Familiar fruits, flowers and objects are rendered in vibrant colors, their buoyant energy sustained by brushstrokes that are loose yet deliberate. Even in these arrangements of everyday things, there is a sense of movement. The rural character of Bogo finds expression in his choice of subjects and in the way he sees and paints them.

Gathered runs from 18 to 31 October, with viewing hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at Vetted, Unit 126, ground floor, Mile Long Building, Amorsolo Street corner V. Rufino Street, Makati City. For more information, call 0917 526 2339.