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Freelance Filipino artist Carlo Rico’s stunning One Afternoon with the Flamingos inspired by the pink feathered flock nesting at The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain has proved to be a feather in his cap.
For he has flown away with the grand BD1,000 prize in the hotel’s first painting contest and will have his intricately detailed and composed acrylic 18cmx24cm canvas placed on display at the five star beach property.
The 54-year-old Filipino art teacher was one of nine artists competing in the final two-day Celebrating Art event staged within its Masaya octagon-shaped pavilion.
“I’m really thrilled,” said Carlo, who lives in A’ali. “I will send some of my prize winnings to my family back home in the Philippines and use the rest to purchase materials and supplies for my studio.”
Carlo answered the open call launched by the Ritz-Carlton along with 24 other artists. Judges whittled down the entries for a final paint-off.
The artists, representing different genres and styles, were taken on a tour of the property’s 20-acre facility before settling down on a spot to sketch before creating their final pieces.
A panel, which was made up of members from the resort’s senior leadership team and a representative from the owning company International Hotel Establishment, judged the artwork on ‘relevance, design and creative elements, integration of technique, expression and organisation’, as well as ‘overall craftsmanship’.
Carlo’s painting was completed in around seven hours ‘alla prima’, which is when an artist paints in the moment and ‘on-the-go’.
Carlo used the technique when he tackled an impression of the Harbour Gate’s horizon in the Bahrain Financial Harbour during the Art for Autism Awareness campaign held last year.
“I’m really a portraitist as I love to project the soul and emotion of a particular person,” explained Carlo. “While landscape and still-life are cool, I am fascinated by portraiture. However, for this particular competition, I was drawn to the landscape and nature that is emphasised at the resort. The flamingos captured my attention. I played a bit on the background to bring out the focal point and used an expressionism style.”
His avant-garde conception and attention to detail scored high points with the jury. “We really liked his attention to detail and his whole composition was really in sync and beautiful to look at,” said Amanda Williams, the resort’s associate director of public relations.
“The very foundation of our hotel and its scenography is related to art, in my opinion. Whenever you walk through the hallways of the Ritz-Carlton, you will see a lot of the art is inspired by our ownership company, from in our restaurants like Cantina Kahlo to the paintings hanging in our corridors. Art is really all around us.
“Also, having this competition falls right in line with the 45th Annual Bahrain Fine Art Exhibition which is currently staged in our new space The Arena. This competition was a way to celebrate local artists and we’re planning on making it an annual event.
“We received amazing submissions and the artists did a wonderful job. It was great to see the hotel from an artist’s perspective.”
Grand prize winner Carlo wasn’t the only artist to walk away in delight.
Imtiaz Ahmad took home BD500 for his Beauty Unfazed acrylic canvas. Artist Irina Averinos’s oil painting The Beauty of The Ritz-Carlton picked up BD250 and BD150 went to Shirley Dockerill’s Scaveola Frutescens.
The Fab Four pieces will shortly be placed on display for three-months.
“We are planning a small curated show here in the resort so the public can enjoy them as much as we did,” added Amanda.
“We will have them framed. We are thinking of placing the art work in our rooms, or our villas, but nothing is confirmed yet.
“We also think maybe the amazing artwork would work well as postcards too, and we are looking into how to reproduce them.”
