Balinese Fantasy
signed and dated 1995 (middle left)
acrylic on canvas
16 1/2" x 26" (42 cm x 66 cm)




Jerry Elizalde Navarro's conversations with Botong Francisco sparked his interest in the island of Bali. Botong wanted to see "The Last Paradise on Earth" but never made it. In an Inquirer article dated October 15, 1989, Navarro mentioned: "In Bali, I thought of my friend, the late Carlos V. Francisco, who might have given his right arm just to see Bali close, like from ringside." Sensational tourism reports about Bali only intensified Navarro's desire to encounter the island's sheer beauty. Hence, Navarro always thought of Bali as a worthwhile experience for every artist who seeks to broaden their visual vocabulary and acquire new creative depths. Navarro commenced the Bali paintings beginning in 1989 during his first visit to the island, to which he would return occasionally. In the same Inquirer article, he wrote: "Bali stuns you with colors. A very vigorous and free profusion of colors in the Bali palette plays a major role in the unfolding of life there." Bali offered Navarro a unique tropical palette inspired by its landscapes, biodiversity, and culture. Navarro proved his capacity in innovating his art to meet the coloristic demands of the Balinese by operating within the realms of his Asian sensibility. The use of naturally occurring colors is essential in Balinese culture. Navarro stressed this importance in his Bali paintings as an homage to the culture he had grown to love. This acknowledgment made Navarro witness Bali as a fusion of underlying dynamic forces resulting in an explosion of colors rather than a purely visual extravaganza. (A.M.)