The trail was familiar, but the perspective was new. This was how The Art of Noticing: Reading the Land renewed my love for hiking the mountains of the Philippines.

I came across this 3-part workshop series on Instagram and immediately signed up for its first installment, held at the La Mesa Ecopark in Quezon City, only to back out after realizing that it was to be held on Mother’s Day. Mother Nature will have to wait, I thought, so I could spend the special day with my Nanay. My next available schedule led me to the series’ third and final installment held at Mt. Talamitam in Batangas. Since this was to be my second time to visit the mountain (the first was as part of a trilogy hike), I prepared myself for a different experience this time around.

This 3rd installment of the The Art of Noticing was a combination of hiking, landscape interpretation, nature journaling/art, and photography carefully designed by Kathleen Baraan and Wren Vallinas. I’m not a painting or sketch artist, but I do like doing a bit of both whenever I can. I don’t consider myself a photographer, but I love taking pictures. Combine these with an opportunity to explore and understand how mountains, their vegetation and landscapes come together to form a constantly evolving environment, and you have a core memory that you can share with the next generation.

Field Quest 1: photography challenge

We were tasked to take 4 types of photographs that document our hike and how we observed the landscape as we moved along: still life, portrait, landscape, and detail. Needless to say, this beginner-friendly hike became even friendlier as we took our time fulfilling the assignment. This is how hiking should be, I thought, unlike the usual ones I do as a joiner where hikers seem to be in a rush to reach the summit.

Below are some of the photos I took along the trail with my trusty old mobile phone as part of the first assignment. Not included here is the portrait I took of one of our tour guides since I wasn’t able to ask for his permission to be included in this blog.

Field Quest 2: then and now

The second task was to paint a landscape in two parts: 1) how we think the landscape looked like in the past; 2) how it actually looks now. While there was plenty of watercolor selflessly shared within the group, I chose to stick with my charcoal set and sketch instead of paint. I was intimidated at first since I’m not really a sketch artist, but the pervading friendly atmosphere among kindred spirits was encouraging. The facilitators were supportive and inspiring, giving helpful tips and positive critique along the way.

Kindred spirits

What struck me the most about this experience are the inspiring insights imbibed by the participants from the passion and knowledge shared to us by Kathleen and Wren. I wish I could put the fascinating information that was shared in detail, but I could not possibly remember everything especially about the various species of plants and trees endemic to Mt. Talamitam, as well as those that have “invaded” the mountain over the years.

Listening to others talk about their artworks made me realize one thing: there’s hope for Mother Nature yet because these kids seem to be alright. We need to have more of these workshops along the trail to make hiking in the Philippines the way it should be.