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“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” quote from the teaching of Buddhism.

Such simple words yet not so simple for many of us. We can go to the quietest and most serene places on earth but if we are not at peace with ourselves, we will never find it. Irregardless of our beliefs.

I ‘discovered’ this subject during my trip to United State last year when I made a detour to Portland, Oregon,  to pay a visit to my husband’s grand aunt who is in her mid 80’s. She is of a Thai descendant and has been living in the States for many years. Being a devout Buddhist, she has a small prayer room filled to the brim with Buddha statues and antiques from Thailand, it looked and felt like a mini Buddhist temple. She spends her time in there praying and meditating most time of the day. Because of the many fruit trees planted

I grew up in a time where the use of these manual typewriters were slowly being replaced by the electric ones. By the time I was working, they were considered antiques.

Don’t know why, I have always been fascinated by this ‘mysterious’ machine. Every time I see one, I could not resist studying and caressing it, wondering about the person who used it and what did he or she typed on it, my mind will go into imagination overdrive.

I came across this antique typewriter during my trip to the United States last year. It is  a Remington Standard own by an artist friend of mine, Dianne Peters Gruber, who lives in Glenn Rose, Texas with her husband Pete. I was very fortunate to be invited by her to live in their house for the duration of my trip there.

I had only noticed the typewriter

This is not a good photo of my art work, it is not sharp enough and the colour, compared to the original, it is slightly off, but I guess it will do. I am so not a technical person when it comes to any type of gadgets. I will have to wait until I get it properly scanned by my framer.

Bougainvilleas is a very common flowering plant in South East Asia. We have it along the highways and almost every street in town and residential areas in the whole country. It is something we Malaysian takes for granted.

This breed of bougainvilleas that I have painted is a mixed breed, made popular in Thailand. It is a hybrid of various types of bougainvilleas. When it blooms, you can see all kinds of colours and they bloom in huge bunches. Especially when under blinding

‘Resonance’ 23″ x 15″, 140lbs Bristol Vellum. Faber Castell polychromos.

Every Morning, after husband and daughter leave the house to work and college, I will have my coffee at the dining area, looking out to the garden and savouring the quiet time by myself before I start my day. That particular morning, the sun was unusually bright and everything looked so refreshing.

I have rows of river pebbles lined up the edges of the house perimeters, they are usually quite dull but on that particular day, those pebbles somehow looked so beautiful resonating under the bright rays of the morning sun. The shadows cast from the frangipani tree added to the serenity to the whole scene, I knew that I have to paint this.  I have painted rocks/pebbles before and I find them calming to paint because there is no set rules on how a rock surface have

“Renungan” 11.7″ x 16.5″, 90lbs (150gm) Canford black paper. Caran D’Ache pablos colored pencils.
“Renungan”  in the Malay language means ‘reflections’, ‘musing’ or even ‘contemplation’ in English. I figured that since orangutans are mainly found in the Malay archipelago, it is befitting to title this piece in the Malay language.

This portrait is an auction piece for the Orangutan Protection Foundation http://opf.org/ This organisation has been promoting the preservation of the wild Orangutan in their natural habitat and the advance of the public benefit in the study, preservation and protection of the wild Orangutan.

I have been a member in the Go APE for Art on Facebook since end of 2013. It is a group for artists of all medium to contribute work of Orangutan for this organisation. This year, OPF is planning a month dedicated to the Orangutan in August. This coincides with Indonesian Independence Day and World Orangutan Day. It will

For One More Day
‘This work sets a distinctive mood in the “portrait” of a clock. The artists has created a wonderful composition using a range of values that communicates much more than the time.’
– comment by judge Elizabeth (Betsy) Holster, CPSA

 Still could not believe it!!

This is my very first ‘win’ in an International online juried competition. What more, it is Colored Pencil Society Association’s (CPSA) 2015 Spring ArtSpectations.

ArtSpectations is CPSA annual event. I have entered twice, 2013 and 2014 but both were not successful. It is not an easy feat to win anything because all the entries are spectacular!

I still remember the judge for the ArtSpectations Fall 2013, Jeff George CPSA, who is a very accomplished artist himself. Even though my entry for that year did not win anything, he private messaged me, thanking me for participating and encouraged me to keep

The publication of my artwork in Ann Kullberg’s CP TREASURES VOLUME III was a dream came through to me. To be amongst 90 colour pencil artists from around the globe selected out of 600  entries is a huge honour. Words just could not described my joy!

This beautiful book was published in late October 2014, coincidentally with the month and time when my beloved father was called home to the LORD the year before.

I recalled vividly the scene and the conversation I had with my father in the hospital during the early month of October 2013. I was sitting on his bed and was showing him all the artwork in CP Treasures Volume II on the Ipad. He took his time to scrutinised all the artwork and said that he could not believed that colour pencil could produced such stunning pieces. I smiled and jokingly

Caught Spike in action! He was barking and tried to attacked the portrait of Justice. Sorry for the shaky photo, I was trying to captured this and in the meantime tried to prevent him from overturning the console table.

I was approached by this sweet talented lady, who is a writer/author/publisher during the opening of her book launch sometime back in early October 2014.  She asked me whether I do commission work. It caught me by surprise because she is someone well known in the literary circle here in Penang and I went “Hmm….” and my friend, Esther, nudged me and said “Hey, you know, work that pays..” Of course I know that!! I was a bit reluctant to accept because I was in the midst of preparing for my exhibition and really could not take any more stuff at that moment. I explained my current situation to her and said that we could

I do not think of titles immediately, it usually comes to me in the midst of working on that particular piece.

I believe that titles are important to a piece of art, it is not only naming a piece of artwork, it gives identity and most important of all, ‘telling’ the audience the story, what the artist is trying to portray in his/her creation.

For example, this painting of my English Bulldog, Sugar, will be quite plain if I just titled it with her name. It will be just a portrait of my sweet lovey pet, Sugar.BUT, when I titled it “Contemplation”, it became a different kind of portrait. You will ‘study’ her expression, your eyes will be drawn to her eyes to see what she is contemplating, right?Therefore, I strongly believe in finding the right title. My opinion anyway. 

This portrait came about when we were lazing about

The origin of facial make-up used in Peking Opera can be traced back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period, more than 1,400 years ago, when leading actors used to wear masks.

As the operatic arts developed, performers gradually took off their masks and painted colourful patterns on their faces instead so people could better see their facial expressions.

Facial make-up enables audiences to grasp the personality of a character portrayed and the character’s social status at a glance.

Many societies in the world adopt colours associated with symbolic meanings. The same is true in China and in Peking Opera.

Peking Opera uses different colours in facial make-up to exaggerate or distort a performers’ features, but originally, only three colours were used — red, white and black – each with its own symbolic meaning. Red is the colour of loyalty, integrity and courage; black suggests a serious and taciturn disposition,