Twenty Filipina domestic workers opened a five-day art exhibition in Hong Kong after six months of training to express their thoughts about their years of hard toil to support their families back home.
The domestic workers took the art workshop, dubbed “Silid Sining: Unlocking Pinay Creativity” under the guidance by Grace P Camacho and had their art exhibited at the Consulate’s Sentro Rizal in late October, sunwebhk.com reported.
The workshop started in May and the women needed to attend a three-hour training course one Sunday per month.
During the workshops, they learned the basics of painting, including the introduction of different genres, how to paint landscape and figures. Each of the participants had to complete one painting in the first three lessons and in the last session, they painted a bigger artwork.
Camacho said the participants had not painted before joining the workshop but by the end, most painted at home alone. The new artists showed they were self-driven, retouching their work when they arrived home.
Camacho said: “That is a way that they can relax, that they can express themselves.” Of the 20 participants, three did not stay until the end because they were fired from their jobs. But the exhibition still showed the paintings they finished before leaving Hong Kong.
Camacho said this was her first workshop for Filipino workers and that she was planning a second, which would focus on works inspired by various masters.