Last summer, my husband and I were driving to the bird-watching reserve in the Candaba Swamp when I happened to glance at the brilliant green rice fields around us where white cranes stood in silent attention. Everything was bathed in the golden early-morning sunlight, and every leaf and stalk seemed to shimmer with an eerie glow.

I was hard put to put into words what I was seeing and feeling, until I exclaimed: “It’s like an Amorsolo painting!” At once, my husband, an artist himself, understood what I meant. We stared silently at the landscape we were moving through, marveling at the powers of a man who had taught us how to “see” the sunlight.

There was a time Fernando Amorsolo, the country’s first National Artist for Painting, was actually considered “baduy.” Perhaps this was because his art was so accessible, ever-present and visible not just in paintings but even in calendars, greeting cards, labels, stamps and textbooks. The popularity of his works also spawned a small industry of imitations and forgeries, such that the “Amorsolo style” soon became synonymous with the commercial, especially with the cheap knock-offs of genre scenes.

Today, though, Filipinos are less nostalgic about our rural origins and so Amorsolo’s works have become less visible. But a new look at the career of this prolific artist should make him just as popular and appreciated as he was decades before.

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“His Art, Our Heart” is an unprecedented art education project that aims to revive interest in the art of Amorsolo, mainly through a seven-museum exhibit that reveals aspects of his legacy: from his images of women, both idyllic and sensual; his landscapes and scenes of rural festivities; his portraits of wealthy and respected citizens; and even the illustrations he provided for grade school readers.

Launching the project is the exhibit “Amorsolo, His Contemporaries and Pictures of War: Capturing Anxieties,” which opens Sept. 23 in the Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, with works that Amorsolo did during the war years, some of which chronicle the atrocities he witnessed at the time. The rest of the exhibits will run until April 2009.

While Amorsolo is rightly remembered for his unique, breathtaking ability to depict the warm, tropical sunshine of his native land, as well as to record rituals and scenes from some idyllic rural setting (he spent his childhood in Daet, Camarines Norte), the exhibits will also showcase the full range of his artistry, highlighting various techniques that he employed to expand his horizons.

“His Art, Our Heart” is presented by the Metrobank group in collaboration with many private and public sponsors and collaborators, with proceeds from the project (through sales of tickets, peripherals and sponsorship) earmarked for Cribs Foundation.

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There will be a send-off and fund-raising party for Ani de Leon, the first Filipino to qualify for the Ironman Triathlon Championships in Kona, Hawaii, this October. The party, to be held on Friday, Sept. 12, starts at 8 p.m. at the Mag.net Café on Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City. Tickets are on sale at P650 each.

There’s an interesting story behind Ani’s participation in the Kona race. She had raced in Thailand earlier this year and qualified for Kona when she won the competition. She was supposed to receive a prize of $5,000 which she had planned to use to get her to Kona, but even after extending her stay in Bangkok to wait for the race promoter to come across, the promoter simply disappeared and Ani came home triumphant but with no prize money in hand.

An experienced triathlete who has mounted several marathons, Ani earns her keep by coaching and training runners, but the amount is far from that needed for all the extra requirements of international competitions.

To help her get a start on winning in Kona, friends organized the grand send-off for Ani. If you want to join the party or just help out, give her sister Sinag a call or text at +63920 8431994. And for readers based in Hawaii, or those with family or friends there, encourage them to turn up for the Kona Triathlon and cheer for our very own racer.

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The firebrand who took on the role of Anita on the opening night of “West Side Story” was Rowena Vilar, and not Pam G as I wrote in Sunday’s column. Born in Australia, Rowena was part of the Australian tour of “Miss Saigon” and this was where she met Leo Valdez, already recognized as the THE Engineer. It was Leo who told Stages producer Audie Gemora about Rowena when they were desperately searching for someone to play Anita. Judging from the results of the opening night, Leo can certainly take some credit for the musical’s success.