CAMILLE DELA ROSA

Camille Dela Rosa was born on the 29th of July, 1982. She is the daughter of the late noted painter Ibarra Y. Dela Rosa and Humanities and Art History professor Ethel Dimacuha, also a visual artist. Perhaps aware of the then pathetic plight of artists, her father, purposely did not encourage Camille to pursue her own artistic vision. He did not teach her how to paint, nor expose her to the art world he circulated in. Upon his demise in 1998, Camille nevertheless decided to become a painter. The same year, she then mounted her first solo exhibition at the age of 16. Her mother was integral in her formation as an artist. She provided Camille with much needed support and encouragement. As a young self - taught artist, her several solo exhibitions from 1998 to 1999 blossomed under the inspiration of her father’s paintings. Sooner, she slowly departed from her father’s style to give way to her penchant for the impressionist technique as evident from her 2000 to 2008 paintings. Camille produced spontaneously and exhibited her gardens, churches, landscapes, flowers, portraits, nudes, and people in their various endeavors along this grain. Art critic Cid Reyes even called Camille in his article as the “youngest impressionist painter in the Philippines”.

More and more, Camille discovered the pleasure and challenge of her art. Suddenly in her 8th year as artist, Camille left her comfort zone, stressing she doesn’t want to be stagnant at one visual genre and stay forever on that plateau. She became restless and an urge to get out of the doldrums besieged her. By the year 2009, Camille surprised the art scene when she launched her 16th solo exhibit, titled “Enigma.” The show was a complete departure from her usual impressionistic garden paintings. She bravely explored the surreal, the morbid, the mechanical, and the unknown. Her works were dominated with proto- human skulls and skeletons - in anatomical veracity of detail. Evident also were symbolic images and leitmotifs such as nude female figures, fetuses, throbbing hearts, faces ghoulish and realistic, proboscis, mouths and eyeballs — in brief an assortment of possibly metaphorical items reflecting narrative potential. 40 CAMILLE DELA ROSA | FILIPINO ARTISTS MAGAZINE

That Each May Be Greater. Oil on Canvas. 3ft x 3ft. 2014

A Temptation. Oil on Canvas. 8ft x 6ft. 2013. Lily of the Valley. Oil on Canvas. 4ft x 3ft. 2015.

Endless Beginning. Oil on Canvas.5ft x ft. 2014 The Other’s Hidden Center. Oil on Canvas. 4ft x 3ft. 2015

Those works are now the images from her subconscious mind. Through this, she was able to create artworks that to others are “morbid” but oozing with mystical, esoteric and occult symbolism. In this art form, she successfully had proven her worth as a surrealist artist.

In 2015, her contemporary and brave experiments in symbolisms are again evident in her solo show, thematically titled “Enchantress,” where she examines the strengths and prowess of women in a series of surreal portraits that are fascinating in their intricacy. Her skillful technique is again on full display, painting women in their dominating roles as mothers, warriors and queens.