Soler Santos (Photo by PINGGOT ZULUETA)

Ask among Filipino parents back in the day if their kids could be artists and they’d immediately give you a resonant and firm no. After, they’d either give you a plethora of reasons justifying their decision or raise their eyebrows as a sign that they’re steering clear from that conversation. Off the bat, pursuing a career in the fine arts had never been an option for such conservative families who could not grasp art’s seductive pull or the emancipating feeling one gets from making something out of nothing. The effect is unfortunate. The knack for art-making is suppressed among kids who have the potential to be visual visionaries.

Looking back, visual artist Soler Santos could not have been more grateful to his parents for encouraging his dreams of being one. But Soler is one lucky chap. The youngest in a brood of four, he grew up in a thriving artistic household, for one. “Pero parang ordinary na lang ‘yun kasi hindi mo naman alam ‘yung buhay ng ibang pamilya eh,” Soler discloses.

Second, he was fortunate enough to witness legendary artists Vicente Manansala, H.R. Ocampo, and Cesar Legaspi convene in their abode to sketch for hours at a time. Once, he drew with them and asked each to fill parts of his sketchpad. Third, he was the godson of Ang Kiukok. And to top it off, he was born to revered master artist and newspaperman Mauro ‘Malang’ Santos.

Soler gladly reminisces how Malang would give him and his elder brother Steve the freedom to play with his countless art paraphernalia lying in their father’s workspace, saying “Sige, magpinta lang kayo!” The young Soler was always ecstatic knowing this.  “Usually kasi kapag bata ka, bawal ang maging artist, ganun ang hiling ng mga magulang dahil iniisip nila na gutom ang abot mo d’yan,” he tells. But while other parents, even those who are already practicing artists, were off-putting, Malang was not. Always, he supported his sons’ creative inclinations.

That’s why when we visited Soler in his studio that he shares with wife-artist Mona, he appears to be a picture of ever-present gratitude. “Kung wala ang tatay, mahihirapan ako eh,” he admits. “Siguro magiging artist din ako pero mahihirapan din siguro akong magsimula.”

But as much as people would like to credit the help and guidance Malang lent his youngest, Soler also carved his name in the local art circuit by way of his own efforts. Determined, he worked hard to prove his worth and did not use his father’s fame to get ahead. To remedy being inevitably compared to his father, Soler opted to find a unique aesthetic path. “Maghanap kayo ng ibang style kasi kapag ginaya niyo ako, wala kayong pupuntahan,” Malang would say then.

And find it he did. As a college student at the University of the Philippines, Soler forged a strong realistic expression with leaves as his first subjects. Some might think painting leaves was as unexciting and trite as it could get, but for Soler, it wasn’t the case.

With a camera in tow, he would always take photographs of the trees surrounding their house. He found fallen leaves attractive and pleasing to the eye. He saw in them a charm that others couldn’t. He sought inspiration from them. “My original plan was just to make one piece pero nakita ko na pwede pala siyang gawing series so nagtuluy-tuloy na, and I had my first solo show in Luz Gallery in 1981.” 

Viewers and art enthusiasts loved and praised his life-like close-ups of natural objects for the longest time. Now however, Soler has veered from realism and went on with another artistic genre—abstraction. But instead of eschewing his past subjects, Soler found a way to still include them in his pieces. Rather than painting them in the most realistic manner as possible, Soler artfully deconstructs them, makes them unpolished and not as sharp as before. Different from other abstractionists, Soler still makes indirect references to his well-loved subjects and takes impetus from nature.

His latest works showcase water drips and “abstract clumps of stone-like shapes.” Here, the artist plays with the motion of water drips and of streams, “showing and then obscuring the stones that line the bedrock below.” Taking advantage of the cooperative quality of his medium, oil, Soler beautifully and effortlessly “mimics the glint of light on the water, the quiver of a stream, and the revelation and veiling of what lies beneath the undertow.” Evident in his pieces is a frolic on transparencies and layers.

Soler notes that he starts a piece by priming the canvas with acrylic. From that point onwards, the artist builds up his work by adding up layers upon layers of paint until he gets the effect he goes after. “Normally, walang studies ‘yung mga gawa ko. Gagawa lang ako ng study kapag may composition akong gustong i-pursue,” he reveals. As a result, Soler’s works boast of spontaneity and an overt vigorous motion, making his works unpretentious and strikingly unplanned.

“I feel happy when I finish a painting,” Soler muses. And it seems also that his paintings evoke from his audience the same sentiment. Soler’s use of a solemn basic palette of grays and blacks in his abstractions makes them come out as meditative—calming and soothing to the nerves. Viewing them up close brings one to a solitary moment, as if one is in the midst of a stream and the only sound reverberating is the steady rush of the water.

Meanwhile, adding relish to his opuses are the artist’s touches of color—reds, oranges, ochres, and blues.  Hence, one may also feel like he or she is looking through a kaleidoscope upon surveying Soler’s transfixing artworks.

Soler is the picture of unceasing gratitude and humility. In fact, the artist even confesses that he still feels less exceptional when compared to his father, adding “Nahihiya ako kasi ang sipag niya eh.” But this author bets his beloved father is also a picture of gratefulness and of contentment—because his son has rightfully reached his dreams.