LOS ALAMITOS : He Draws on Talent as Source of Income

Like most boys, Rafael Maniago loved playing cowboys and Indians. But not with toy guns or bows and arrows. He played on paper. He would spend hours drawing mock battles and portraits of Indian chiefs.

More than 40 years later, thousands of miles away from his native Philippines, Maniago still loves to draw cowboys and Indians. But this time it is to support his family.

Western art is becoming popular among collectors, Maniago said, and his work is helping send two children to college. “I’m making a living,” said Maniago, 50, who also teaches art classes at the Pasadena Art Center and holds private lessons to supplement his income. “You can say, I’m not your typical struggling artist.”

Maniago is a member of the Los Alamitos Community Art League, an organization of about 200 artists from around Southern California that regularly holds shows, exhibits and painting demonstrations at the community center here. Last year, two of his pen-and-ink drawings were featured in “A History of Early Los Alamitos,” a book published by the Los Alamitos Museum Assn. that chronicles life in the city in the early 1800s.

“This city has helped me expose my work,” said Maniago, who offered his services for free for the book that the museum hopes to sell to local parent-teacher groups. The book costs $5. “I wanted to give something back,” he said.

On a recent morning, Maniago signed copies of the book for residents Sydney Gordon, Earl Kendrick and Althea Miller at the Los Alamitos Museum.

“There are very few cities like Los Alamitos,” said Miller, a member of the city’s Cultural and Fine Arts Commission. “The book will show the children what we have here and hopefully, they can appreciate that.”

Using old photographs, Maniago and four other artists drew some of the city’s historic structures. The Filipino’s drawings showed his versatility, according to Buddy Hawkins, former president of the Los Alamitos Community Art League, who considers Maniago one of the art group’s best portrait artists.

“He makes a living off his paintings, which is unusual for an artist nowadays,” said Hawkins, who has been painting for the past 20 years as a hobby. “He wins almost every art competition that he enters. He’s very talented.”

Born in Angeles City, Pampanga, on the island of Luzon, Maniago attended the University of the East in Manila, where he studied fine arts and advertising. He owned and managed his art gallery near Clark Air Base from 1965 to 1984.

When he came to the United States in 1985, he painted advertising signs to make a living for two years. He also took art lessons to improve his skills. In 1990, he studied under Chuck Hammond, a portrait instructor, who later introduced him to the art group.

“He’s very hard-working and wants to learn all the time,” said Hammond.

Maniago has won awards in various art competitions. In 1990, he was named Artist of the Year at the San Gabriel Fine Art Show. One of his paintings hangs at City Hall.

Maniago said he hopes to work more on subjects that deal with his Filipino heritage.

“That’s my identity, and I want to keep that,” he said. “Cowboys and Indians (paintings) are fun and help pay the bills, but they don’t say who I am.”