She started working on her first solo exhibition in 2020, which was mounted the year after. Entitled "Hypernature", the exhibition of Tee's penchant for floral designs were transported into four triptychs and a diptych of acrylic paintings. "It was my initial reaction to what at the time felt like a dystopic moment in all our lives. Having a strong awareness of the privilege and luxury that I had, the access to art as an avenue to cope as compared to others. . .I fell into deep reflection on what role and what sort of impact I wanted to leave the physical earth in if only one had such days yet to live," she explains.

Onwards, her appreciation for nature strengthened and even became more profound as she has found it to be a "healing element" on a canvas. Its colours reinvigorated her from anxiety in that period.

Read also: Fashion Designer Rosenthal Tee Talks 2020 Bridal Gowns And Trends

Colours of nature in both earthly and aquatic tones define most of Tee's paintings. Soothing, calming, and encapsulating permanence are some of the striking elements in her works. This alludes to her fascination with the works of National Artist Hernando R Ocampo and esteemed Filipino visual artist Lao Lianben. "I admire their strong mastery of analogous colours and even a discerning control by which they portray their abstracts," Tee shares. Internationally, she likes the works of Bram Bogart, Gerhard Richter, Helen Frankenthaler, and Anselm Kiefer. "Kiefer dabbles the lines in which colour and form are informed onto the canvas or installation," she continues.

At the beginning of 2022, Tee mounted "In the Spaces Between" at the Secret Fresh Gallery, when she finally came to terms with her role as a creative and its accompanying responsibilities despite the uncertain situation. "I was extremely anxious during this period because of external pressures to keep the fashion business going and to keep the team productive despite the lack of commissioned garments to do," she recalls. "I was energetically depleted as a fashion designer because I had very little room to experiment or 'play', as I would consider it, and so I poured out that frustration onto these batch of paintings which feel a little bit more sombre and a lot more contemplative as compared to my previous exhibition."

Read also: Rosenthal Tee's February 2022 Exhibit Unveiled at RONAC Art Centre

Determined to explore her artistic identity further, she joined Linangan Artist Residency, founded by renowned Filipino artist Manny Garibay and his family. "I discovered it through my parents' close friends: the modern and contemporary painter Jeff Dizon and his wife Emma," answers Tee. "They've known me since I was little and had always pushed me to continue painting, especially when I stopped completely to concentrate on fashion. Seeing as they saw a potential for me to learn more through this residency, they recommended that I apply for it. In that way, I could immerse myself in an environment that would enable me to catch up with the lost years and improve on my technique."

She stayed in Alfonso, Cavite, for two months, where Linangan Artist Residency relocated in recent years. She had met her fellows in the Batch Darangin and since then had an eye-opening experience of the Philippine art scene. "When I first entered, I was so opposed to the idea of integrating fashion into it, perhaps as a slight rebellion on the figurative form. Fashion is informed by fit and proportion, while in art, one has more intuitive freedom. Having [that freedom] allowed me to explore my prompts on a canvas, the residence became somehow a healing element for me to come to terms with those opposing design philosophies."

Read also: Foodie Finds with Fashion Designer Rosenthal Tee—Where Does She Love to Order From?

For the duration of the summer, Tee shares that she had the best time with her mentors and fellow young artists, most especially with their "show and tell" conversations. "I was blessed to be in a group that was so open to positively questioning, critiquing, and providing technical solutions to whatever it is that needed help in our works," Tee shares. "I think that just coming into the residency with the awareness that you are all coming in [as] equal translates to better learning. Maybe because I also come from a creative industry that derives its success from teamwork, I really entered into the residency to expose myself to learning more—being open to suggestions is such a big factor as to why I believe my batchmates and I got along so well."

A culmination of a well-spent summer, the annual "Patikim" exhibition of the residency showcased the works of Batch Darangin. "Being a city girl all my life, openly volunteering to spend a summer in the countryside initially felt extremely daunting. But I was up for the challenge! I suppose it informs the drastic jump in technical improvement I was hoping to achieve by having the right people mentor and inform me as an artist. The residency always culminates in a 'Patikim', and as the word means, it is just a taste of what we have all achieved as visual artists. I feel as compared to my previous exhibitions, my works at 'Patikim' is so far the more informed version of my art."

Her works for the exhibition include a painted canvas dummy shaped on a mannequin, a triptych, and several large paintings. "I've always found my peace in simply absorbing colours from lush gardens and the seaside, and so a lot of my work, despite the limited time, is inspired by my rare chance to be by these natural formations. The pieces are informed by the calming yet agitating elements of nature. For example, the act of sitting by the shore and watching the waves crash onto exposed rock formations is quite liberating—it's soothing and violent at the same time. Or in a perfectly manicured garden where if you look quite closely, you will see how one thing can die for another incredibly beautiful thing to thrive," she explains.

Au Printemps is an example of Tee's reaction to a perfect Spring Summer afternoon deluged by a swift rain shower. Meanwhile, Tabon is named after the Tabon Cave in Palawan and is informed by her natural appreciation of decay and the weathering of natural formation. Alon is her love letter to the sea, Tee shares. It is to show her appreciation for the organic phenomenon that can sound violent with their crashing but are visually beautiful in the interplay of colours. 

"Darangin was my personal challenge to play with fire literally," she says. "It may sound funny, but as a personality with so much fire, I find translating that into clothing and onto the canvas difficult! My preference really goes strongly towards soothing greens and blues. And so when I was doing this, the feeling was as if I needed to mark a permanence on to the crimson, and so if you see the painting up close, the impasto is definitely apparent," she adds.

Now that she has already soaked her toes in this journey as an artist, Tee reveals that she intends to continue working on her art via solo and group exhibitions. "I'm hoping to have [an exhibition] with my fellow residents who I now consider as my art family," Tee says.

From being a renowned fashion designer, Tee braves the world of fine arts—something she left long ago but helped her get out of anxiety in one of the darkest periods in our recent history. "Art to me is forever about the visceral permanence of myself as a mortal creative in this world. Art doesn't always need to be understood, but with any viewer looking in, art always has a tendency to leave an impression, and that's what I really hope to achieve as a creative in both the fashion and artistic aspects."

NOW READ

Melissa Yeung-Yap on the Importance of Filipino-Centrism in Art and Philanthropy

Markus Jentes on Pushing the Boundaries of His Artistic Style

Istituto Marangoni Celebrates 80 Years of Nurturing Emerging Artists Like Pam Quiñones and More