And, just as Westendorp emanates lightheartedness, her paintings also emit a playful promise, what with her use of a noticeable light-suffused tonal values and a vibrant palette—and with good reason. Westendorp says her large, multi-hued, and poetic oeuvres reflect her emotions at the time she painted them and that most of the time her pieces are not methodological, as they are brilliant with raw energy, verve, and impulse.

This is not to say, though, that Westendorp is clumsy and shoddy in her creative process and painterly expressions. Albeit the fact that the Madrid-based painter, who considers the Philippines her second home, did not take formal art training, Westendorp learned from the best, that is "from the studio of different painters, from the works of art displayed at the museums, from innumerable books, and from exchanging points of view with other artists."

Of course, observing the masters and reading art books weren’t enough, a budding painter also has to have talent and passion and these are two things that Westendorp obviously possesses. Talent and passion have taken Westendorp very far in terms of her painting career and her aesthetics. The artist has painted enough subjects to last her a lifetime including her renowned landscapes, floral masterpieces, portraits, and pieces that give off bold and novel impressions of light and color.

Appraise a Westendorp painting and you will not miss the artist’s fondness for vibrant colors such as sky blue, shades of reds and oranges, and hues of violets. Most of these colors are reflected in Westendorp’s full-bodied flora and fauna paintings as well as in her abstract compositions permeated and inspired by the changes of light in the artist’s immediate surroundings. But aside from the obvious; Westendorp has also created a love affair with the barong-barong or shanties lined up in streets and in riverbanks that she saw and painted decades ago.

In her barong-barong series, Westendorp painted these lowly Filipino homes in such a way that beauty and dignity were present in them. Westendorp had an off-tangent perspective about the shanties that we all saw as desolate and depressing. "I was impressed. They were very beautiful," she claims. It seemed as though Westendorp found the shanties unique and had not minded at all how simple they all appeared.

Perhaps, this is one of the many great things about Westendorp. The artist sees beauty and life where there is none or where there should be. She finds beauty in every single thing she encounters just as how she considers all her subjects who have sat for her breathing and classic portraits unforgettable, and just as how she finds solace in the hospitality and warmth of her Filipino family-in-law.

The Filipino in Westendorp is not lost in translation amid her long absence in the country. She remembers meeting Fernando Amorsolo and learning heaps from him, saying the master was more than kind to accommodate her and did not show any signs of being disturbed when she showed up eager at his doorstep. "He’s very good in getting the likeness of a person from a photograph but he was charging less for a portrait, But, I was very lucky because I had my portrait done by him" she claims. It saddens her, though, that Amorsolo received all the recognition and credit only after he passed away.

Of course, among the many memories in the country that Westendorp recalls, it’s meeting her husband that she finds most endearing. In fact, she admits there were just two things that she paid much attention to: her husband and her art. A devoted wife and partner, Westendorp considers "loving her husband" her greatest achievement, while she deems art is her life. But she sheepishly admits how she could’ve given more attention to her daughters.

However, Westendorp is not to be fazed and deterred from what she truly loves. She still paints large, and by this, it means working on huge canvases, reasoning she may not be able to give justice to nature and her subjects via small pieces. Also, one would probably question how the 81-year-old artist has kept herself healthy all these years. To which she answers: "It’s all good genetics!" And she bursts into a peal of irresistible laughter.

Her hilarity and mild-mannered demeanor are results of how the arts affected her life. Westendorp tells, "Painting is like meditation. When I paint, it’s as if I’m entering the alpha and then all my worries and problems are washed away almost that easily."

In her latest offering of vibrant and inspired creations titled 'Reflections,' Westendorp, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Merit for Art and Culture, is geared to blow away spectators with over a 100 paintings that have been shipped in from Spain—all skillfully painted with heart and spirit which reveals that with Westendorp, art survives and time, really, is nothing.