Edcel at his extended First Solo Exhibition for the Philippine Independence Day celebration at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Kamal Kassim/Gulf Today

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

It all started with a date that may denote eternity and continuity. There is no stopping now for this quadragenarian, whose acumen for precise details, particularly proportions, began at construction sites, courtesy of his late construction mason father.

“It was on April 30, 2020. Lockdown,” architect Edcel La Rosa Cabalan said.

Observed to be bashful while his eyes behind his specs speak volumes, the 46-year-old has so far 170 of the most difficult mediums in his portfolio.

“Since I already established my name in this field, I will be continually honing my skills in watercolour. I am planning to do a series with a minimum of 10 paintings per subject,” said the “Ani Ng Dangal 2022” (“Harvest of Honours 2022”) Visual Arts awardee of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts under the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines.

“I shall continue my coffee painting,” added Cabalan, leaving this reporter, with stitched eyebrows and tongue-tied.

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“Coffee painting is when you use coffee granules totally melted in hot water. I saw this medium online and in some art galleries here in the UAE, planning to conduct workshops. I tried it once at home. Fell in love with it. Very suitable for my Heritage Buildings Series. Yes, it is the tones and tints of coffee which you master,” the recipient of the “Outstanding Minglanillahanon 2023 in the Field of Arts and Culture” on April 9, explained.

Born and raised in the municipality of Minglanilla in Cebu Province, Cabalan was grateful to Labour Attache in Dubai and the Northern Emirates John Rio Bautista and to Filipino Social Club (FilSoC) president Ericson Reyes for giving him “the opportunity” for his first solo exhibition: “It was a milestone. Every artist looks forward to the break that validates one’s career in visual arts.”

The solo exhibition with 20 art pieces was staged on June 9 for the first-ever “Overseas Filipino Workers Night,” a collaboration between the Migrant Workers Office-Dubai and FilSoC for the 28th year of the Philippines’ National Migrant Workers Day and the 125th June 12, 1898 Philippine Independence Day (PID) Commemoration.

Twenty-four were exhibited on June 18 for the grand PID celebrations at the Sheikh Saeed Hall of the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Going back to the times when his father, Marcelino Cabalan, took him onsite on weekends, the architect, who had added documentary photography – that which “captures candid moments at an event or of an individual at a certain time and place” – to his list of hobbies since arriving in the UAE in 2007, said his ambition was to become a teacher “which I think is most children’s dream.”

“Because of those construction sites and I thank God for my father, I have been exposed to the significance of every detail. It was my Manong Edmar, eight years my senior, taking up Civil Engineering, who influenced me into drawing. He let me use his technical pens even when I was still in grade school. It was one Career Day in school and through a university that I decided to take up Architecture over Civil Engineering,” the smiling Cabalan narrated.

For that April 30, 2020, he volunteered: “That pandemic might be unwanted. The isolation might be miserable. There is always a silver lining, a hope, and an upside that is sure to come out of every adversity, though. When the wizard says that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times; if only one remembers to turn on the light; we would for sure, capture the wonders of this world. I since reflected on this, in each stroke of my brushes.”

“Watercolour is not an easy tool. You cannot afford to be wrong unlike the other media that you can easily adjust by adding other colours on top. Watercolour needs precision and careful planning as to what specific colours and quantity of water to achieve the best result,” said Cabalan.

His cityscapes and panoramas are simply that. It is his intention to bring in the viewers and the audience “to that specific place.” These have been “accepted and exhibited in various galleries, both online and physical, not only in the UAE but also in “Georgia, Mauritius, France, Spain, Italy, India, UAE, and USA,” according to the MWO-Dubai/FilSoC invitation.