Art Through the Years

My most treasured Art certificate , stenciled on blue manila card. Simple yet priceless. Year: 1966
I have been addicted to Art since my primary school days. When I was 15 years old I won a second place in our school-wide art competition. For that I was awarded a certificate which I still keep because it meant so much to me. Walking up the stage to receive the certificate was a very memorable moment in my life.


Painting plein air at the Brighton Beach, Miri,1968. ( Inset) I'm the one on right of the picture.Note: One of my senoirs at school told me later in life that I was one of those kids who joined the school small, and left the school - small. He admitted I was indeed his 'compact' friend!.I knew now that I was always a late developer. And for that reason I take it to be my duty to learn life-long.

In 1967 I continued my upper secondary schooling at Tanjong Lobang School , Miri. For four intensive years I opted for Art as one of my favourite subjects, among others like Geography, History and General Science. In Miri I was under the masterly guidance of Mr. Voong, my Art teacher who migrated to Australia after I finished my studies at the school. He was instrumental in providing the proper basic Art education in my early formative years. Thanks to him I've never stopped learning Art. In 1970 I sat for the Higher School Certificate and obtained a Principal Pass A in Art. Later in my university days ( 1971-1973) I took History as my major, but never forget to add Art-related subjects as option like - Aesthetics, Buddhist Sculpture in South East Asia, Drama in South East Asia, Puppet Theatre and Children's Theatre. Through these formal studies I learnt many philosophies, methods, techniques, concepts and appreciation of Art in a very wide context.


Friends and Artists pose at my 1 st Solo Exhibition, 14/10/1981, Kuching.

In 1981, I got a new job as an administrator in housing development with a major regional development agency having headquarters at Kuching. Being the Art capital of Sarawak, I took this opportunity to organise my 1st Solo Art Exhibition there. Held at the Sarawak Museum it was the first solo I ever did and grateful that I made it.

Me painting in 1992 at my studio, Bintulu.

It has been a long, very long time that I have not hold any solo exhibition. I have made a commitment to undertake it this year. Like the first solo, it was held to celebrate my 30th birthday and this year's will be to celebrate my 58th . I have less than 27 weeks to prepare for the big day. Anyway, like what is fashionable now, I have opened a web blog to record my thinking, preparation etc for the coming exhibition.To follow, click here. However this new exhibition will be very different because it will integrate all my diverse interests ( I picked along the way) in the show as follows: Photography, Landscaping, Gardening, Writing, Cats, Floral Art, Singing and finally Blogging. The exhibition will showcase my Life Story.

Flashy Sassy

I have not done any posts since I arrived Bintulu for a good reason. There's so much to do here that blogging will have to take the back seat. The schedule seems further crammed because tomorrow we'll be on the road again to Kuching. However I was inspired to face my notebook this morning when I encountered this clump of heliconia sassy pink at the back of our chalet. The long pendulous stalk on the left has 24 bracts. At the spur of the moment I decided to make a quick compostion for the morning. However I ended making more than 10. Why not?
The rest will be posted when I'll be in Kuching in my other blog here.


I prefer to just plunge the whole inflorescence inside a round glass vase to exhibit the colours through the looking glass. Devoid of any other materials, the above can become a stand alone display. Maybe call it.... Sassy Senoritas.

However since we'll be going to Kuching tomorrow why not make more cuttings of heliconias to make a riotous crowd. In goes the other varieties of heliconias with familiar names like golden torch , parrot flower and lobster's claws. What an exuberant show of colours! I therefore would call the composition...Flashy Sassy.

In Honour of Hibiscus

Over the decades, the Hibiscus Flower has been depicted in Malaysia's postage stamps.  While skimming through my stamps albums I managed to collect a few memorable stamps that were illustrated with the hibiscus flower from as far back as 1967.  The stamp on the botton left clearly showed the date of the stamp based on its issue in celeberating the 10  Years Anniversary of Malayan Independence from British colonial rule ( 1957-1967)

The Hibiscus Flower is generally known as 'Bunga Raya " in Malaysia.  There are hundreds of species of the hibiscus and even more hybrids as more and more people become adapt in hybridizing them.  However my love is still the red hibiscus which is single petalled. There are others that come in semi-double or double petals in various colours and combinations. I have attempted to make some flower arrangement using the hibiscus flowers.  Guys ..and ..Gals..You all invited to see my compositon of the hibiscus flowers in my daily cut flowers blog.