Ronilo Abayan
0 Artwork
Biography
Ronilo Abayan is an internationally celebrated artist who has won numerous awards locally and internationally. To name a few: he is a four-time Art Renewal Center finalist, a two-time International Artist Finalist, and the 2nd place winner of the Portrait Society of America. His favorite subjects are breathtaking landscapes, tribespeople, and wildlife.
Already, Ronilo Abayan’s portraits of several prominent world leaders have been presented to them by President Duterte, including President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev of Russia, President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan of China, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, King Abdullah of Jordan, Former Prime Minister Mahatir Bin Mohamed and First Lady Siti Hasma Mohamad Ali of Malaysia, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, President Halimah Yacob of Singapore, former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Reuven Rivlin of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Deve Gowda and the First Lady of India, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, Former President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka, Former President of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and First Lady Akie Abe, among others. It was learned that he simply takes three to four days to finish such a piece of art.
Ronilo is not from a family of renowned painters, and he never attended an elite school of visual arts. Instead, he had humble beginnings. At seven years old, he used to draw on the walls of his modest home using a piece of charcoal fished out from his mother’s kitchen. “My mother took no offense to my behavior of ruining her walls with my charcoal sketches, which initially had no precise shape or meaning; instead, she admired them.
As a youngster, he kept on drawing his dream images on whatever material he could get hold of—paper, walls, pieces of wood, etc.
As he entered adulthood, he found a job as a security guard, then as a construction site helper. He was not ecstatic about these jobs and could not find the energy to please his bosses as his mind was completely elsewhere. Soon enough, he was fired from his security guard job when his supervisor caught him painting pictures while on duty.
Then a friend introduced him to a job where he was supposed to draw hoardings for movies, getting a step closer to realizing his dream. He mastered his painting skills on the job. Later, as a hobby, he started doing on-the-spot caricatures for shoppers at the store. “A lot of people can draw, but capturing the characteristics and resemblance of the actual person, in other words, the soul of the character in the portrait, is hard to achieve,” Abayan says.
“I want to encourage the next generation of artists that art is a profitable profession, and I want to invite the youngsters to keep pursuing their dreams until they reach the pinnacle.” His two daughters and son have also taken after their father and are talented painters. Not to mention, his four-year-old grandchild recently joined a group exhibition and has already sold two of her paintings.
• 2nd Place Winner - Portrait Society of America | "Self Portrait." | 2020
• People's choice Award - Art Renewal Center I | "Oh Jade" | 30 x 40 inches | 2021
• Finalist - Portrait Society of America | commissioned portrait category | "Sweet Tooth" | 2021
2nd Place Winner - Portrait Society of America | "Self Portrait." | 2020
• Finalist - Portrait Society of America | Outside of the box category | " Black Smith | 2020
• Finalist -international Artist Magazine | " Mother and Child" I 30x 40 inches | 2012