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This particular piece of artwork was specially done with my mother in mind.

She came to me one day and asked whether I will be willing to create a piece of artwork for a charity auction. It was a no brainer, for my mom, absolutely A OK.

Immediately I knew what the subject will be. My mother, dedicates her life after my father’s passing, actively doing the Lord’s work. The very first thing when she wakes up at 5am in the morning, is to go through the daily reading from the bible. And her bible, is really, a sight to behold! The cover is almost falling apart and was secured with cellophane tape.

I did not see it as just an old worn out bible. I see and feel her dedications, her faith in what she believes in. An image that is strongly imbedded in my mind.

I somehow deleted the original photo

Every once in a while, I have to explore something that is outside of my comfort zone. Like this one, for instance.

I came across the artworks by the late painter, Walter Tandy Murch . Was absolutely captivated by his style. Very texturised, clever play of light and shadows with multiple muted undertones of colours. It is something in-between expressionism and realism genre of artwork. Most of his still life subjects are your everyday things but very old; antiques. A subject matter which I love.

That got me thinking perhaps, I could try to implement some of his style with colour pencils. I know very well that it could never be 100% like his but maybe ‘adopt’ something similar. With that in mind, I have to find a subject that I can try it with.

While trying to look for the ‘candidate’, I recalled that I took a photo of an old

This is very typical of a bulldog when there is food. Just say that magic word “You want some?” and voila! No matter how sleepy they are, that eye, will light up as clear as day!!

It has been ages since I did any dog portrait. My very first bulldog portrait was of Spike back in 2013 as a practice piece. He was our very first English Bulldog. As for Sugar, I did her portrait in 2014, which is a much proper piece of art as I get the hang of the medium.

Mr. Macho a.k.a Spike (2013)

Contemplation a.k.a. Sugar (2014)

We have 3 English Bulldogs but sadly, Spike and Sugar have crossed over the rainbow bridge during the Covid lock down. Spike in 2020 and Sugar, just last year. It was a very heart wrenching couple of years for all of us in the family. Today, the only surviving bulldog of the

I have always been drawn to old stuffs especially when there’s metal involved. Old typewriters, clocks, printing machines ….. This time, it is the mechanism of an antique mantel clock.

Subjects like these are not really popular even in Realism art. Perhaps because it is quite glum. But to me, when I see things like this, my intuitive vision kicked in. I see a story and perhaps, secrets in those antique pieces.

But what kind of story? Well, I have mine but I don’t want to make this mine alone. I want it to be a piece of artwork that has an emotional evolution. It can be memories, time lost, reminiscing good old days, anything, rather than just look at it as just some metal thing. BUT, It is also not wrong to see it as just some old metal junk.

I have done a few similar subjects in the

atemporal/eɪˈtɛmp(ə)r(ə)l : existing or considered without relation to time.

I am always fascinated by trees, especially the very old ones. I can just stand by it and imagine all kinds of scenes and era it had witnessed and been through. Even long after we are gone, these trees, if not destroyed by humans, remained, unaffected by time.

“When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life. Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung

These words could not have been truer. Especially with my state of mind before I decided to create this piece.

In December 2021, for the whole month, I was extremely busy socialising, attending art and talk events. Everything seemed to happen within very short notice after the long Covid lockdown. Galleries and social events went out full force, trying to make up lost times.

Being more towards an introvert (Oh, I can socialise well if need to but not that often), it was all quite too much for me. I felt lost and was pretty emotionally ‘disarrayed’. It was too much for me. Mentally exhausted.

This particular reference photo was taken in 2019, when I was preparing for my first solo exhibition. I decided not to use it because

A bit of an odd subject, with these onions. Rotten onions, to be exact.

This came by unexpectedly. I did not intentionally picked this subject matter, I think it chose me instead.

I have not been cooking as often as I would like to lately, so some perishable stuffs tend to rot away. For instance, these 3 red onions.

Strangely, when I was about to dump them into the bin, something held me back. My mind went “Hang on, put it aside for a couple of days and see what happened”.

By that, I definitely don’t have any intention to use them for any cooking for sure. Perhaps a painting of it?? So I left them on that ledge for about 2 weeks and warned everyone in house to not touch nor move them, hubby included.

I was dilly dallying before I realised how long the shoots have grown. And the colours!! The

Looking at this, I am quite sure many of you may wondered why I picked this subject matter. Eaten corn cobs???

Why?

Well, let me tell you the story…

Firstly, let me tell you that this subject was not planned. Never crossed my mind to ever want to draw corns, what more, eaten corn cobs. Come to think of it, it is quite yucky to want to draw an eaten corn cob.

One weekend during the covid lockdown, I got so bored of cooking and decided to steam some corns for lunch. While we, the husband, the daughter and myself were eating it, I noticed something pretty fascinating.

I was staring at the both of them and really observed how they ate their corns. It was messy!! I thought there is only one way of eating corns on the cob, by eating each and every kernel!

But not them.

Excitingly but calmly….., I

Silence can be calm and soothing to some but it can also be quite deafening and scary to others.

I believe that it all depending on the individual’s state of mind, at that certain time. Personally, I find it very calming. Silence is my place of refuge, where I contemplate all the good and bad that goes on with life.

I live across a beautiful stretch of beach but I hardly go there. Reason is because it is a public beach with food stalls, so there’s always some crowds. If I ever feel like taking a stroll on the beach by myself, I would usually go quite early in the morning.

So, one fine day, when I was feeling a bit ‘stuffy’ in the head (not from cold, just too much going on up there), I decided to pay the beach a visit.

The sound of the waves was soothing,

“When you look a wild animal in the eye, it’s like catching a glimpse into the soul of nature itself”

-Paul Oxton

I started working on this piece on the 31st of March this year and I took my own sweet time with it. Not that I had nothing to work on, in fact, I was in the midst of working on a whole new series of artworks WHEN I received an invite to participate in a ‘by invitation only” group exhibition.

The theme is “LangUR“, a visual arts exhibition to create awareness in the Dusky Leaf Monkey (Langurs) conservation which will be held in August 2021 at Penang State Art Gallery. Part of the proceeds from sold artworks will be donated to the “Langur Project Penang (LPP)” organisation https://langurprojectpenang.com/.

This is definitely something that I could never resist. Art for a good cause, a purpose. Immediately I knew that I