Meet Valerie Chua. She's a painter from the Philippines. You might stumbled across her Instagram or walked inside galleries and found her exhibitions. If you are thinking of kickstarting your art career, she's the girl to look up to.
A while ago, we caught up with her. Here's how it went:
What are you painting right now?
Right now I’m working on large oil paintings for a group show in the Philippines and Malaysia.
What's your spirit animal?
I think it would be an owl because I work alone and I’m very elusive.
What's your favorite thing to paint?
I love painting portraits.
What's your favorite thing to wear?
Denim. They look good with almost anything.
If you find a magic pen which has the magic to make everything you draw come true, what would you draw first?
A 100% safe levitating transport like a hoverboard or a flying Vespa, or a new transport system or pathway. Traffic here is crazy and I’m sure it’s the same in Jakarta. A magic pen can’t make more time so I think anything that can help people gain more valuable time is a good invention.
Do you always know that you want to be a painter?
When I was young I was very fond of animals and insects. I watched Animal Planet every day and would memorize dog breeds in encyclopedias. I wanted to be in a field related to animals, but as I grew older my interests changed. I found out that I wanted to be an illustrator in college. Then, I decided to be a painter just a few years ago because someone introduced me to the field. I’ve always been creative but my interest in becoming a painter was something gradual.
How did you kick start your painting career?
I was working as a commercial illustrator for 3 years. On my 3rd year, an established painter reached out to me and asked if I wanted to join a local group exhibition. He was weighing my thought process as a painter and slowly introduced me to more exhibits. I did terribly at the start (no one bought my work) but he gave me more opportunities to refine my work. As I did more work and opened my mind to criticism and experimentation, I appreciated being a painter more.
What's your favorite project so far?
I think that each project is different. Right now my most fulfilling ones are the oil painting projects, mainly because the paintings are difficult to do and I’m learning a lot from a medium that I’m not very familiar with. Watercoloring is quick and you can see results right away but for my painting work, it takes weeks to develop and finish. It’s like waiting for an egg to hatch. You don’t know what to expect but you have to be patient, consistent and be confident enough that the results will be good. If I were to name a specific one, maybe it’s the one for Pinto Museum because it’s the biggest I’ve done and it was also mildly frustrating halfway. Haha!
Can you tell us a little about a future project that gets you excited?
I just finished a project with the local distributor of Canson Arches paper and Winsor and Newton. It’s not released yet but I’m pretty excited about it because the item I made is going to be sold around the country and people will get to learn from it and use it. I’ve done a lot of commercial packaging before but it’s the first time that I’m doing something where people will get to use my work instead. It’s very new to me, which is why it’s exciting.
Take a look at our collection, which outfit would you like to wear daily?
If working in the studio, I wear dark colors because the paint spills around a lot. I’d love to pair these with denim and I think they’re good pieces to wear even after work if you need to meet people:
If going out:
Love your website!! All your products are wonderful. <3
Written by Helena Natasha.
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