Works an Ode to Beauty

represented, not unlike the reliquaries of saints in old devotional images.”

Self-taught artist

A self-taught, intuitive painter who works from a deeply personal visual language and imagination, Ronquillo paints in the style of the European classical traditions coupled with a magical realism rooted in folk and colonial imagery. She has an authentic voice, echoing from an inner world where art history meets with nostalgia and imagined characters from literature, theatre and opera.

Each painting is an unfolding story of layered meanings brought to life through multiple layers of paint. Her painted surfaces sparkle with thin delicate glazes over thick impastos and scattered scumbles of semi-transparent colors.

“My paintings start as exploratory sketches … very crude, just a scribbled idea,” Ronquillo explained. “From there, I create a ‘working’ drawing, more than a sketch but far from a ‘finished’ drawing. When I’m satisfied, I transfer the drawing to a panel or canvas. The beginning is a very conventional, grayish monochrome under painting called a grisaille. I then paint several layers to achieve a lustrous and pearl-like surface quality. It’s finished when the idea and execution come together, or in simpler terms: when it looks right. I’m not always good at calling works finished,” she said. “Sometimes I realize I just can’t add any more layers.”

Born in San Fernando, the Philippines in 1976, Ronquillo immigrated as a child to the United States in 1987 when her family settled in San Antonio, Texas. She currently lives and maintains a studio in Santa Fe, where she lives with her husband and West Highland terrier. Her work is included in private collections throughout North America and Europe.