HARMONY IN PAINTING

My visit to Baguio City over the weekend gives me a

chance to drop by Bencab’s Museum to finish a reaction paper

required in our English for Academic Purposes class. Bencab is

one of the City of Pine’s most renowned artists whose art

museum has attracted tourists. Meeting him in the flesh is an

added bonus to my weekend journey to the city.

As required in my EAPP subject, I am tasked to do a reaction paper on a painting. I have chosen

Romeo Mananquil’s “Morning Bath” to be the subject of my paper as I am also a nature lover myself and

the scene depicted in the painting evokes memories of my childhood. Moreover, “Morning Bath”

catches my attention because of the way the artist plays with the colors and the medium. The painting is

just perfect if one is to focus on harmony in painting.

According to Cezanne, “when paintings are done right, harmony appears by itself. The more

numerous and varied they are, the more the effect is obtained and agreeable to the eye”. As in music,

harmony in art is the pleasing arrangement of the elements or parts of the whole. All elements working

together to create a pleasing order in the canvas. Mananquil’s “Morning Bath” is such a good example.

Mananquil is a master at creating a harmonious blend of all the elements within a painting. The artist

uses color in much the same manner as music uses harmony. He creates harmony with color to help

build a particular relationship between the colors on the palette. When colors are harmonized the

relationship that is established allows the colors to work together. By sharing something in common,

they blend together creating harmony. This painting by Mananquil showing a mother bathing her

children in the river show color harmony in all areas.

Colors are classified by three properties: hue, purity and value — terms that are often

misunderstood. Experimenting with a graphics program will get the distinctions into your head, though
colors mix differently on screen. Harmony is also achieved by using colors of similar purity or tonal

value.

When you look at the painting, you will notice that the rustic scene evokes nostalgic feeling

because Mananquil splashed colors of red, brown, and blue with proper values/ tone in triads across the

canvas. Harmony has also been achieved by very skillful use of tone. Thus, the painting has become

visually active and psychologically arousing.