Mona Lisa Reyes Santos is born in Manila, Philippines on March 22, 1962. At a young age, Mona showed her interest in the arts and this was encouraged by her father who sent her to train under Galo Ocampo, a prominent Filipino Modern artist. She pursued advertising in college and received her Certificate in Visual Communications from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1982. Mona worked for the advertising industry for a while but the call of canvases brought her back to painting in 1990 and she has since then never turned back.

Mona's works consist mostly of large-scale blow-ups oh indigenous flowers that boast of photographic preciseness. She takes her subjects from photograph and absorbs herself in painstakingly portraying every detail of the folds of the petals and experimenting on the interplay between light and shadow. Through her paintings, viewers obtain a fresh perspective on what seems to be mundane objects of life and immersed in a sensual feast of God's creation. It is in the simplicity of her subjects and the complex adaption she creates of them that makes Mona the unique artist that she is.

Mona workpieces were a juror's choice in the Philippine Art Awards organized by the Philip Morris Group of Companies in 1995. Her works have been showcased in several groups and solo exhibitions in the Philippine and New York.

 

Mona Lisa Reyes Santos  paint flowers exactly as I see them, the way the light touches them. They are the Lord's creations and cannot make them any more beautiful than they already are.