Painting – in the rain
Published on: Sunday, October 25, 2020
By: Sylvia Howe
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I have been watching Sky Portrait painter of the year on You Tube, a subject close to my heart. It has been a lesson to me to lighten up. And accept a few basic facts. Not all paintings work, and everyone has bad moments. I still have no idea if a painting I start will come out OK and something I am beginning to learn during this lockdown is that it doesn’t really matter. If I take it slowly, let it dry, I can always start again, and again, I need to loosen up. There is also always, without fail, a moment of blind panic – usually about a third of the way through, when the shape is there, I have mixed accurate colours, but it doesn’t look much like the subject. The answer? Press on. Don’t stand back yet, but keep going, and almost always, it starts taking shape. Alex Tzavaras, my You Tube mentor, advises against too much detail, against tickling and tweaking and not letting go. Sounds lovely. I am right with him, until I start ticking and tweaking. We all do it, I know, and it is so hard to go against the instinct. The maxim, I need to follow is “paint what you see” and have faith. If you do that, then magically, your painting becomes the person, or even better, you take on the person. It’s a bit like writing: show, don’t tell. Let the magic that is the reader, the observer, respond to the work. Accept, and lighten up. Something that we can all do in this bubble of time, when Covid can light the blue touch paper and stand back.
Art to raise the spirits
I bought a painting this week. It is by much admired Sabahan artist Awang Fadilah, who paints in sharp black and white, and chooses subjects close to home. Mine has hornbills, others have owl and all are set in what he is familiar with: his kampung, the forest, that sort of thing.
I’m told he is collected, as he should be, but that is not why I bought it. I love it, and I haven’t felt so pleased with a purchase for a very long time. Not cheap but worth every penny.
I know there are people in Sabah who question the value of art. Well, this doesn’t wash my car or vacuum the floor, it isn’t a piece of jewellery I can flash about, or a month’s rent on an apartment. And if you haven’t got any spare cash, then art takes a back seat of course. Nobody actually needs art to eat, but I would argue that it helps you live. It is good for the soul, and the soul doesn’t get much of a look in in these complicated times.
If you want to know more about him: https://books.google.com.my/books/about/Land_Below_The_Wind.html?id=EzOiDAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y
Keeping calm
We must, as I said last week, be sensible about spreading tales that may cause people to fret. What we need are stories that are cheering – people who have got better, people who have had it only lightly, and we must congratulate ourselves on NOT being among the countries where numbers are in the hundreds of thousands. Numbers are rising, but that is inevitable. Anything else is wishful thinking. Covid ain’t going anywhere. Not until there is a vaccine anyhow, and that’s not imminent.
From Jesselton to Kota Kinabalu
The book. The book. If I have done anything in my time here in Sabah it is to show people how much work goes into producing a publication to be proud of. Checking checking and rechecking. The Daily Express, for instance, doesn’t produce itself. Nothing is perfect. There will always be something that slips past the most eagle-eyed, but without those eyes, it would be a dog’s dinner. And it is not. Nor is the book. It is a powerful and significant testament to the hard work of a group of interested people and it will be published soon. All profits will go to Befrienders, which is an excellent place for them, particularly at this time when isolation and lock down is messing with lots of people’s mental health. We must all remember to Be Kind.
FYI – catch this while you can
Today at 3 o’clock there is a free two-hour webinar, Becoming a Person of Influence.
Training will be by renowned leadership expert John Maxwell and certified trainer coach Jasmine Leong, DTM. Good ideas, useful pointers, worth a listen.
Time: 3pm-5pm
Register to join: https://bit.ly/D51SSW4 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3481800365188916&id=123607407672&sfnsn=mo
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