Location: Silangan Garden + Pinto Art Museum
1 Sierra Madre St., Grand Heights, Antipolo City, Rizal
After weeks of relentless rain in the Metro, the return of the sun in full force last Saturday, August 18, was an opportunity not to be wasted—especially as the promise of more rain looms in the near future. I have wanted to visit the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo since it opened in 2010 and finally the day had come. Along with two friends, we had ourselves a mini road trip.
Door leading to the garden at Pinto Art Gallery in Antipolo. Photo by Janus Victoria, InterAksyon.com.
With moderate traffic, we reached our destination just an hour from our meeting point in Makati. We arrived at 2 pm and after a quick dessert at the museum café—serviced by Bizu, by the way—I spent most of the afternoon exploring Silangan Garden, the sprawling property on which the owner’s villa and the museum are built.
Mother Nature by Daniel dela Cruz. Photo by Janus Victoria, InterAksyon.com.
Indeed, if there ever was a time I stopped to smell the flowers, it was then. Like a museum, Silangan Garden is a carefully curated space. Sharing the earth with the lush green are a number of interesting sculptures of different materials; my favorite is a clay figure of a man crouched and holding his head with his hands while snails crawl all over him. Entitled “Take Your Time,” the garden certainly inspired me to do so. In fact, I took the advice to heart that in the end I ended up just breezing thru the famed art collection of the museum’s owner, Dr. Joven Cuanang, before its closing time at 6 pm.
But with the museum just an hour’s drive away, I can easily return.
• Pinto Gallery is open from 9 am to 6pm except on Monday. Entrance fee P100.
Randomness in the Garden. A rocking horse and shabby chic bed in the middle of the lawn. Photo by Janus Victoria, InterAksyon.com.
