Philipp Britta Badon Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1955 -

YOU won’t find Philipp Brita Badon sitting idly by – unless he is trying to capture an inspired moment. "I'd sit around to enjoy the experience," he says. "Then I'd paint it right away."
If that sounds like a rush, it is.
Badon, one of the more successful Filipino contemporary artists, rarely makes studies, and when he does, these are mostly for commissioned pieces. The bulk of his works is the product of those flashes of inspiration. It has grown into a hoard and turned his modest back street studio and gallery in Quezon City into a fine mess. "It's a jumble out there," he says.
That w0ould almost certainly be the impression you'd get if you saw it. More certainly, you couldn't escape being struck by the man's art. First, there is the wildly varied theme, which runs from the ubiquitous mother-and-daughter figures to galactic impressions and erotic art. There is the style, which has drawn comparisons – rightly or wrongly – to early Picasso without the dark mood but with a splash of color.
Then there is the price. Badon builds value in his works from the bottom up, which makes them affordable to fans of art appreciation and a good investment for buyers driven by profit motive. "You have to protect the value of your work, of course, but only up to a point," he says. "Beyond that, you have to leave it to the market."
That's as far as he goes on the commercial aspect of his work. The rest is up to his eldest daughter, 27 year old TJ Anne Badon. "We noticed that his work could use a bit more push as a business proposition. So we decided that for a start, we should look at a more effective marketing plan," she says.
TJ left her job as marketing manager of Pepsi Cola Philippines to join her father's business. She has an enormous respect for it, having watched it grow and having seen its potential. Since coming aboard a year ago, TJ has successfully marketed Badon in the United States Australia, Europe, the Philippines and key cities in Asia.
In Hong Kong for his 27th one-man show, Badon had three paintings snapped up before the exhibit opened. Earlier, he had sold out in Singapore. Plans are under way for a tour of the Middle East, starting with Qatar. But with limited exposure to the business of the art market, TJ sees a big challenge ahead. "First, we have to make contact with the right people," she says. "Only then can we begin the marketing."
It helps that her father’s works speak for themselves. "Word of mouth is a big part of the reason that more people are taking notice," TJ says.
The marketing machine cranks up a gear the more high-profile the product becomes. Badon cracked the Hollywood art circle when Tom Hanks, Diana Ross and Roberta Flack became regular clients. In Manila, celebrity TV host Boy Abunda is not shy to drop a line about his growing collection of Badon impressionists and figures.
That said, Badon still throws the occasional sales pitch, mostly to visitors to his art gallery. But this quickly turns into a discussion of the finer points of his art. "I like doing figures. Mother and daughter is an eternal theme," he says. "I go for the unreachable, what's out there, the things we don't know but can imagine."
At home with mixed media, Badon is equipped to give expression to these themes. He has done more than one theme in pastel, acrylic and oil. There's instant gratification in pastel, which has certain qualities not found in the others. "You get more control and the finished product doesn't smudge easily. It's what you want if an idea strikes you on the spot."
Expecting the unexpected, Badon rarely goes out unprepared for those spur-of-the moment encounters. Awed by the beauty of Hong Kong’s New Territories, he painted the landscape from the window of a moving train over the shoulder of an accidental subject. It was an intense 25-minute ride in which Badon raced against time. It was this sense of urgency that moved him to freeze the moment in pastel when he saw a group of Chinese women collecting mussels in the gathering dusk during a stroll on the beach a short distance from Hong Kong Disneyland. Both works made it to his Hong Kong exhibit.
This passion for instantaneous creation can be consuming, and Badon often pays a toll in mental deflation. To get his creative juices flowing again after a particularly draining session, he has taken to swimming and doesn’t mind a glass or two, may be a bottle, of red wine. “And that’s all during office hours,” he jokes.
Still, his life and work are not nearly as regimented. Badon enjoys playing off-side and once gave his body over to tattoo art, which covers the better part of his skin. “That was a sort of starting point for me, giving bodily expression to another artist,” he says.
It’s also a measure of his humble beginnings. TJ still remembers one birthday gift she got from her father. “He could not afford to buy me a gift for my first birthday,” she says.
“So he painted it, wrote on the back and kept it. He gave it to me when I was old enough to understand.”
It’s her favorite toy. It’s her father’s favorite painting.