Rene Canlas

Rene is a graphic designer and photographer by profession but his love and passion in painting remains in his heart. He is a contemporary-representational visual artist working primarily with subjects that catches his interest.

In 1989, he accepted the oer to work in one of the biggest Ad-agencies in Riyadh and Jeddah, KSA until late 2014 before retiring in 2015. As a conviction, he returned to his first love which is painting.

Since then, Rene became more actively participating in various local and international art exhibits and competitions. In October of 2018, he successfully held his 1st One-Man Watercolor Exhibit entitled Re-Vision at the Ayala ArtistSpace in Greenbelt Makati City.

Rene considered his 3 times Top 5 Awards (Hall of Fame Awardee) in the prestigious “Kulay Sa Tubig Art Competition in 2019, 2021, and 2022” as a headstart to renew his art career and pursue with great vigor, the challenges of the most difficult medium to master – which is the art of watercolor. Aside from watercolor, he paints in oil, acrylic, and pastel.

To date, Rene is considered as one of the prolic watercolorists in the country having won in local and international competitions. Recently he received a major award in watercolor competition in Japan International Watercolor Institute JIWI (Japan)2021; Honorable Award in the 1st Hamyang Biennale (South Korea) 2021; Grand Prize Award in the 4th PGW IWS Convention 2021 in LRI Design Plaza Makati; Finalists at the International Watercolor Masters (UK)2021, and Honorable Awardee in Pyrenees France in the same year. Recently Awarded as a “Hall of Famer” in the just concluded 34th Kulay sa Tubig for winning his 3rd top Award for 2022.