Manuel Baldemor, traveling artist with colorful diary

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Filipino Manuel Baldemor has made thousands of paintings during the 57 years of his life as he journeyed from place to place, from culture to culture.

At home, art critics describe him as being "versatile".

"I can paint 10 paintings a day," Baldemor said at his Jakarta exhibition on Friday.

Everywhere he travels -- so far he has been to 57 countries -- he makes sketches and paints.

"When I travel I always arm myself with a camera, a sketchpad, paper and an ink pen," he said.

A Filipino art critic, Rosalinda L. Orosa, wrote in her book about him, Painting the Global Village, that "Baldemor writes his travel diary with a prolific brush."

His works display a wide variety of styles and techniques, and he uses mediums that are in accordance with his location.

He painted on papyrus during his visit to Egypt, for example, and on silk in South Korea. He used "vigorous" colors for his paintings of Chilean people, while pastel colors were employed for the city scapes of European countries like Austria, France, Moscow and Hungary.

However, traveling a lot does not mean that he does not love his home country. He often paints Filipino people and remains fascinated by his local culture.

"Windows tell a lot about Filipinos. We like to watch people on the street through our open windows. We also like to place flower boxes outside our windows," Baldemor said.

"We are happy people, we have a lot of festivals. I like painting Filipino festivals -- the farmers, the lives of simple folk," he continued.

Thus, some critics have called him a folk painter, he explained.

But Baldemor, who was educated at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in fine arts, excels in things other than painting. Apart from being the father of three children and grandfather of five grandchildren, he is also a sculptor, writer, printmaker and book illustrator.

"I was born on March 26, 1947 in Paete, Laguna, the Philippines, a place which is known for its woodcarvings," he said after opening his solo exhibition in Jakarta.

At 12 years of age, he said, he was regarded by the townspeople as being a "master carver" because he could make unique works in wood.

His carvings became models for the other carvers in town to reproduce.

"But later, I lost my respected title because of a Balinese sculpture," he said, grinning.

"An exporter came to town, asking me to reproduce a Balinese three-dimensional sculpture. I failed. People stopped calling me 'master carver'," he added, laughing.

Baldemor said that ever since the Balinese sculpture fiasco he had been curious about Balinese sculpting.

"When I first visited Bali in 1989, I understood. The place is clearly a heaven for artists," he said.

In the near future, he said, he would travel throughout Southeast Asia to paint.

"The one time I traveled and failed to paint was when I visited Singapore with my family. I went shopping instead," he said, laughing.

He added that he wanted to be a poet when he was young. He writes poems, but mostly he keeps them to himself.

"But you can say I paint poetry," he said.

The reproductions of his works adorned UNICEF greeting cards for years. Once, some of his paintings were also reproduced for the Philippines' national stamps.