As a lawyer, Ritzel Rabor-Polinar’s world is profoundly adversarial, after a week of confronting all forms of problems and toxicity she finds her passion in painting very helpful in distressing.
Growing up, Ritzel developed her illustration skills with the aid of comics lying around their house; she would also fervently copy the faces of celebrities like Sharon Cuneta or Maricel Soriano off of pages in magazines even past her bedtime until she was satisfied with the portraitures.
“My teacher in art during grade school said I was a natural, but I guess I am good in drawing because I do it all in my waking time; I just know that I love to draw and I spend more time drawing than sleeping,” the artist jokingly shares. Ms. Ritzel’s creations are mostly acrylic and watercolor but her most favorite medium to use remains to be watercolor—which is very apparent in her style that is a cross between impressionism and realism. Even though the artist’s subjects are realistic, the application is impressionistic; wherein, even when using acrylic on canvas, the end result is of soft hues of pastel that is blended thoroughly that it still looks like it was done in watercolor.
“In my world as a lawyer, everything is structured and well-planned—you have to be one or two steps ahead and have good foresight, and that’s why I appreciate the kind of release and surprise that watercolor gives me. To borrow the famous line in Forrest Gump: ‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’re gonna get…’—in watercolor, there are plenty of unconceived accidents because it’s spontaneous, but the irony is that, these are actually calculated accidents—it’s planned yet unplanned—that is what I love about watercolor! The unpredictability best captures the style I have developed through the years: dreamy, colorful, romanticized or exalted realism,” Ritzel passionately shares.
Painting is a very spiritual activity for the artist. It is like meditating and losing herself in every piece because she gives her all and sense of being. Ritzel finds refuge in her art, which replenishes her energy every weekend after working in the stressful justice system. Her works usually revolve around landscapes and even cityscapes that even glamorize the hanging live wires of the streets in Davao City with her signature pastel and happy colors, but people are still her most favorite subject despite working with them day in and day out.
“I am forever fascinated by the faces of every human being beautifully crafted by our Creator. I have made portraits of people from all walks of life—young, old, from the flower vendor, to a judge of the Supreme Court. Art, for me, exists so that I could deal with anything when working Monday comes and for the rest of the week. God manifests Himself everywhere—in the symmetry of nature, in the faces of the people, and even in the way a house cat sleeps. To be able to capture that moment and that expression is to remind people through my art that life is beautiful, and it is like spreading the Good News itself,” Ritzel shares.
Truly, the law of beauty is apparent in Ritzel Rabor-Polinar’s works—like her artistic skill in blending the rust of metal with nature’s green palette, her colorful emphasis with lines of sacrifice in the face of an old woman contrasting with the ephemeral strokes of charms in a youth, and the magical rainbow sheen of drenched pavement. In all of these, the artist wants to magnify and to enable her audience to see in vivid color her artistic vision.
