At 15 years old, Nemesio Miranda Jr. won first place at the 1964 Shankar’s International Competition in Painting in New Delhi, India. Since then, he never considered any other vocation than art.
Immersing himself in the creative environment, he worked as an apprentice of reproduction painting under Miguel Galvez of the Mabini Art Circle where he met pioneers like Vicente Manansala, Federico Gonzales and Paco Gorospe. By 1970, he graduated from Fine Arts, Major in Painting, at the University of Santo Tomas.
Immediately after graduation, he went on to explore sculptural murals using concrete — a new medium he eventually popularized using the name Nemiranda. He is also acknowledged as the forerunner of the art idiom, “imaginative figurism” — painting the human form through pure imagination.
Influences
In an earlier interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, Miranda said that his main influence was Carlos “Botong” Francisco, their neighbor in Angono, Rizal and his father’s camping buddy.
As a young boy, he was able to closely watch Franciso — who later became National Artist for Visual Arts — working, inspiring him to become an artist too.
“I had no other passion but to paint since childhood until now,” said the 70-year-old Miranda. “I was seven years old when I got to see how Botong played his brush on canvas and that left an indelible mark in my mind.”
He related that Francisco would do on-the-spot painting every time they went camping.
“I would sit beside him and do what he did. So, my father bought a sketch pad for me and charcoal pencils. I did this until I was 12.”
He clarified though that the master was not his mentor.
“He did not teach me. I learned by osmosis, perhaps. By looking at Botong’s work, it is tantamount to being taught by him,” he said.
Miranda also remembers how in the 1950s, most folks entertained themselves by listening to the radio and reading komiks, the latter how he also found inspiration from the work of illustrator Francisco Coching, another National Artist of the Philippines.
“I was enamored with the illustrations of Coching. He was my first exposure to drawing. I would look intently at each illustration, memorizing each line and on my own and tried to copy the style. Kinikiskis ko yung uling [charcoal as tool for drawing] sa pader, sa dingding, kaya lagi akong napapagalitan,” he recalled laughing.
The third child in a brood of 10, Miranda comes from a bloodline that bred Angono’s foremost artists — Spanish colonial period painter Juan Senson and National Artist for Music Lucio San Pedro.
“More on music ang family namin. Ako lang ang nag-drawing,” he said.
Blessed with five children himself — Katrina, Zarah Jane, Paul Greco, Don Nemesio 3rd and Franchesca Parisha — every one of them had their stint as painters. It is his eldest, however, who has also made a name in art circles as Keiye Miranda.
Angono’s son
The Angono-born master also channeled his time and resources by co-founding the Angono Atelier Association and building the Nemiranda Arthouse and Museum, where he immortalized Filipino folklore characters through three-dimensional sculptures like “Malakas At Maganda,” “Amihan,” “Habagat,” “Kapre,” “Tikbalang,” “Bernardo Carpio,” “Mariang Makiling,” “Nuno Sa Punso,” “Sirena” and “Mutya Ng Pasig.” This “Myths And Legends” theme was first presented as an exhibit in 1985.
In his hometown, he is best known for the “Dambana ng Kagitingan” which honors World War 2 Angono veterans and soldiers, and the “Two Carabao Heads” at Edenville Subdivision.
He further welcomes students willing to learn art personally from him through the Angono School for the Arts. Friends and art aficionados also gather at his own Nemiranda Art Cafe. He has served as chairman of the Angono Tourism Council and promoter of the town’s Higantes Festival, and chaired the Committee on Visual Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for one term.
Celebrating ‘figurism’
Miranda likens drawing and sculpting human figures to memorizing a poem.
“You read it repeatedly until you memorize it. It’s the same with painting and drawing. If you can memorize the anatomy of the human form in different positions, in different angles, then you can master the human form by purely using your imagination,” he said.
It was through this process that he developed the Imaginative Figurism art philosophy.
“I believe that when you draw from memory, you are actually drawing what is inside you, what is in your soul. If you just take a picture and copy from the picture, that process of transferring what you see to the canvas is a skill alright. But when you draw it from imagination, that is creativity. That’s the difference between painting from imagination and painting from photographs,” he said.
Within this creative process, Miranda approaches art as a celebration of life.
“People in the farm, in the lake; scenes of harvest, family bonding, love, life, myths, legends, and now the frontlines in this pandemic. All my works revolve around these subjects.”
Authentic art
While painters choose various tools and platforms to create art — some even using projection on canvas, with others creating their own brushes with materials like feather, broom, wood, shell and so on for fancier details — Nemiranda believes that no artistry can be as authentic as the conventional way of painting using brushes from one’s imagination.
“Art is how the figures and colors are masterfully executed in strokes, just like how Juan Luna did in his world-famous ‘Spolarium’ or Fernando Amorsolo and Botong Francisco in their masterpieces,” he said.
Only 25 when he created the two-meter by 175-meter bas-relief sculpture at the Fort Bonifacio Parade Grounds, titled “History of the Philippine Army,” he was commissioned to do the bas-relief sculpture of the 75th anniversary of the Leyte Gulf Landing at the McArthur Park in Palo, Leyte last year.
In 2018, he worked on a 35-painting series called “Marawi In The Eyes Of An Artist,” a traveling exhibit which reached Iloilo, Davao City, Angono, Tacloban and Ormoc, and donated part of the proceeds to the Army Fund of surviving soldiers.
The exhibit also made a stop at the Department of Foreign Affairs in May 2019, receiving an invitation for some of the pieces to be shown at The Netherlands, where they were shown in Amsterdam in October then Uden City the following month.
“I haven’t been to Marawi, I haven’t seen the carnage or the ruins, but the images that I saw in the news were so strong they were impressed on my mind. That’s where the inspiration came from,” he said.
Visual historian
Rarely does an artist focus on historical subjects mainly because of the challenge of drawing human figures. But given the sobriquet “Father of Imaginative Figurism” by his peers, Nemiranda is one of the few who have masterfully dwelled on historical subjects — in all the 50 years of art career.
His other notable paintings and sculptures include “Edsa People Power Revolution” (1986), “Edsa Dos” (2001), “Typhoon Yolanda” (2018, although the disaster happened in 2013), and “Mayon Volcano Eruption” (2019).
And so amid the coronavirus pandemic, Miranda has been compelled to record what is happening to the country and the rest of the world on his canvas. At home like everyone else during the quarantine, he focused his energies on paying tribute to frontliners in a piece simply called “PH Covid-19 Lockdown.”
“This is a simple way to pay homage to our frontliners like doctors, nurses, policemen, military personnel and media people as they risk their lives to save others’ lives. Many had paid their own lives already while the future of the country [and the world] is still unknown,” noted the painter who had already been nominated as National Artist for Visual Arts in 2009.
Today, Nemiranda shares his meaningful artwork with The Sunday Times Magazine for the very first time as he sends his thanks and admiration for every Filipino at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic this Easter day.