I AM privileged to be the owner of a Tata Sevilleno watercolor. The artist gave it to me, because I so admired her work – pastel flecks of color streaking across a black sky. It was in 2016 when Tata took the leap from the corporate life in Manila into the world of art in Negros. It comes as no surprise for her to plunge into painting, because it was natural for her to follow her brother Edbon’s firm footsteps as an established watercolorist. (“Painting with watercolors is therapy for me. Working with water makes it relaxing.”)
Bayking 
Bulu-baruto ni Toto
This visual artist also known as TeySev, had created an impact in so short a time by doing landscapes to houses. She opened her art house on Dec. 13 as another testament to how Tata took an even higher leap from watercolorist to mosaic artist. Sixty art pieces (19 watercolor paintings, 30 miniature paintings and mosaic art, and 11 mosaics made with hand-cut ceramic tile tessarae, sea glass and colored glass) in the exhibition are about “playing house” or “talking about many houses.” Earlier works about houses ignited Tata’s love affair with them on canvass. These houses are neither mansions nor modern digs, but the abodes of informal settlers along the coast or on the sea itself. TeySev’s amazing perspective of the poor man’s urban home gave these houses romantic, colorful (as opposed to dismal) and happy airs. You begin to see a new world in these paintings, and you begin to see humanity.
Moonlit 
Catching Tibagring
TeySev likes to paint and sketch as she travels, and sometimes she travels alone around the Philippines and Southeast Asia including a very memorable week-long immersion in Chiang Mai. This gives her the flexibility to choose her subject and paint according to her personal clock. (“Travel sketching is capturing moments frozen in time.”) She even travels to far-flung areas including mountainous places and gets to share her art with children who are interested but do not have access to art workshops. She even gets to teach indigenous people art.
Last year, TeySev finally got to express her artistic talent through mosaic. She had always admired mosaic art for a long time, but her self-doubt got the better of her. She thought she couldn’t do it and she thought doing mosaic was too difficult for her. Last summer, upon the invitation of Bacolod mosaic artist Gigi Campos, Tata was able to “just do it”. She did it with so much enthusiasm (again another leap, coupled with a passionate plunge) that in one-and-a-half months, she produced 10 pieces of mosaic artwork. Bravo, Tata! You have joined the exclusive roster of mosaic artists in Negros. (“Mosaic, for me, is reliving life’s great moments one tile at a time.”)
During her travels to Palawan, she was inspired, along the way, by how the children still played indigenous games despite the presence of gadgets and digital games. These watercolors are TeySev’s love letter to her childhood and her love for our country’s islands./PN
