Despite the gloomy weather with an overcast sky that promises an early rain, Aurelio Castro III “officially” started his two day Baguio SketchTour sojourn at the middle of Lower Session Road Friday morning.
With local counterpart Ged Alangui still on barangay duty as a kagawad at City Camp Central, Castro started sketching at the middle of the city’s, and even country’s, most famous street to capture how it looks now in his two-day affair sketching at the city he last saw, and drew, before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“Might as well as start here first. Draw Session Road then the stairs leading to the (Baguio) Cathedral,” said Castro, while having coffee with this writer at Volante.
Castro arrived Thursday and already started his work drawing Quirino Hill, before checking in at the Podium Botique Hotel, his official residence for the three days he will undertake the SketchTour which the eponymous Publications and Media Work initiated.
While at his room’s terrace, he also drew the mountains and the community behind the hotel owned by running enthusiast Melan Kuh-Marquez.
Thursday night saw Castro drawing singers and band for the fund raiser for Baguio artist Gerald “Majik” Asbucan, who will undergo medical procedures soon to remove his pancreas and gall bladder.
He did watercolors of the nine performers before calling it a night for the Friday tour around the vicinities of Session Road for his sketching where he use watercolor.
Alangui said that he wanted to be part of the skethtour as he aims to form a local version of the Urban Sketching group, actually a world wide organization, to which Castro is a part of, particularly, the Manila and Quezon City chapters.
Castro and Alangui, who is fresh from finishing 10 murals of local sports personalities in the Heroes Wall of Fame project, will try to capture the city’s more important landmarks in the four day “tour”.
“I really want to start an urban sketching group in the city,” Alangui told this writer.
The finished art works will be put on display at the Baguio Convention Center on September 30, during the closing of the Charter Month.
It took Castro less than 30 minutes to complete his Session Road sketch, before calling it quits due to the drizzle forgoing the Cathedral stairs part and instead drew the inside of Volante, that is formerly the Session Theater. Pigeon Lobien