"To tell a woman everything she may not do is to tell her what she can do,” says one Spanish proverb.

True. There is really much more to women than just being the second sex or just being confined to the trivial trappings of domesticated life. History has proven this countless times in women leaders, crusaders, scholars, artists, writers, and thespians among others. It has seen the growing force of women to do things beyond what is traditionally expected of them. It has witnessed how women are as equally skilled and equipped as men to pursue sensible dreams and achieve them. And it has undeniably debunked the notion that only men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work.

That’s why for visual artist Lydia Velasco, there is no better subject to paint than her kind, her gender.

And she paints them awfully well. A woman herself, Velasco speaks for and to women via her grounded and seductive visual language, which she has cultivated for many years.

More than a paean to a woman’s beauty and grace, Velasco’s oil paintings capture the totality of a woman. She triumphs in her works a woman’s femininity and strength, her sensuality and depth, her coyness and audacity, her reticence and lavishness, and her mystery and candidness. The artist does so by fusing these contrasting attributes in one space and makes them flourish in creative harmony.

Velasco shares how her earliest drawings resemble her female archetype today—brawny and elongated with almost masculine features.  It is safe to say that Velasco’s well-liked, powerful, and easily recognizable imagery is rooted in the artist’s personal struggles while growing up.

Her depictions of a woman aptly reflect her experience of being a fish vendor at a tender age so as to support her family’s meager paycheck. She had to take on that role too since she was the eldest.
She reminisces how she would divide her 20-peso daily income among her siblings who needed fare to go to school. The young Velasco’s toil is translated into her many canvases of tanned and exotic-looking women engaged in idle talk, recreation, or in everyday life situations, wearing flimsy or little clothing but appearing rather well-built and ready for the demands of physical labor. Arresting, Velasco’s opuses portray the strong and resilient character of a contemporary Filipina while retaining her innate poise and elegance.

Velasco’s love for the arts can be traced back to her childhood. She took inspiration and influence from her family who appreciated anything artsy and particularly from her father who was a set designer and painter for LVN Pictures. Velasco recalls how she would regularly see her father paint and  how she loved his paintings. It was just natural for her to dabble in the visual arts, Velasco says, for her interest in painting ran and thrived in her blood.

But when Velasco enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas, she pursued advertising instead. An advertising man saw Velasco’s talent and told her he would immediately get her as an artist if she took up the course. Not wanting to miss a rare opportunity, Velasco agreed.

In 1963, Velasco was working and earning money for her and her family. She was only a college sophomore then. Shortly after graduation, Velasco worked in several multinational advertising companies. She rose from the ranks and became art director in firms such as J. Walter Thompson, Ace Compton, Basic, and McCann-Erickson.

In 1988, Velasco grew tired of advertising and went on to pick up and wield a brush at 50. Now at 67, Velasco has found her unique style and niche in the local art circuit.

“My paintings now are derivatives of my work in advertising. My  job then consisted of creating storyboards of 10 frames each for beauty soaps and shampoos,” Velasco explains. “Dapat sa storyboard na iyon maipakita mo na kaagad ‘yung storya mo, ‘yung problem, demo, and solution.

Dapat sa konting frames lang eh nandoon na ‘yung kwento. Na-adapt ko ‘yung philosophy na ‘yun sa mga trabaho ko ngayon. Bawat trabaho ko may kwento.”

During her 10-year stay in Philfrom, Velasco had the privilege of working with Cesar Legaspi and H.R. Ocampo, both were later named National Artist. “Naging director ko si Legaspi. Si Nanding Ocampo naman, mahilig siyang mag-drawing pero sa broadcast department siya,” she tells. “Tinuruan ako ng forms and color ni Nanding, ‘yung tamang combination ng dalawa. Kay Cesar naman, ‘yung tamang pag-drawing ng tao, figures and human anatomy.”

But aside from the influences from the masters, Velasco also took insight from Anita Magsaysay-Ho, the only woman among the 13 new young talents or modernists who challenged the conservative painting school in the 1950s. Magsaysay-Ho became known for her figurative abstracts of women.

“Naging idol ko siya bilang babaeng pintor. Kaya lang ang mga babae niya eh medyo conservative, sa akin mapang-akit,” she lightheartedly says. “Sa kanya, reserved, ako naman ‘yung mga babae ko, ‘hala bira!’”

In her latest exhibition titled ‘Fabulosa,’ Velasco reincarnates her women figures in the luxuriant and decorative guise of Gustav Klimt’s art nouveau aesthetics.

Her impetus for the exhibit came when, during a recent sojourn in New York, she saw the ornate and elaborate works of the Austrian painter. Klimt, whose primary subject was the female body, is notably recognized for his paintings and portraits of women in states of intertwined ecstasy and eroticism.

His were works that are marked by intricate and opulent decorative patterns rendered in bright or golden color fields.

Imbibing Klimt’s aesthetic sense, Velasco painted her signature women figures clad in sinuous and flowing dresses with detailed and sophisticated prints. She also placed her women in lively and expressionistic backdrops done in a sense of dynamic superlative such as the colorful view of Muslim vintas, the spectacle of fiestas, the flamboyant structural design of a church altar, and the multihued façade and interior of a jeepney and a karetela (horse-drawn carriage). Hence, Velasco’s pieces came out very Filipinized and her own, as she still made use of her customary palette of reds, oranges, yellows, blues, and greens.

Caught and seen in evocative and provocative gestures, Velasco’s women glow and look otherworldly with their stylized poses—their nimble limbs and torsos roused by the artist’s masterly brushstrokes.

Velasco reveals that her paintings are reminiscent of Paul Gauguin’s color scheme and El Greco’s elongated figures but only to that extent.

When asked of the reward she gets from painting, Velasco divulges: “Respect.” The artist says that it’s not the money that excites her. “Gusto ko lang ‘yung karangalan. ‘Yung masasabi ng tao na itong si Lydia Velasco, hindi siya basta-basta lang. Masarap na maipakita ko sa lahat na ako ito, ito ang trabaho ko…na kahit mawala ako sa mundo, matatandaan nila ‘yung gawang Velasco.”

And what of the tattoo of a rose inked on the artist’s left forearm that this author noticed at the end of the interview? Velasco says that it symbolizes a woman. “Matinik!” Laughter follows.