THE recently concluded Putrajaya National Watercolour Competition show, which was held at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, was a rare treat for watercolour lovers. Sixty-nine works were selected for this inaugural show from what was reputed to be one of the largest competitions held nationwide since 1983.

Initiated by the former Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, himself an avid watercolourist and also president of Putrajaya Corporation, the competition and exhibition was coordinated by the Malaysian Watercolour Organisation (MWO), one of the leading bodies promoting the art.


CONCENTRATION: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi admiring Dr Wong's PM at Work during the exhibition's opening. With him is Datuk Seri Rais Yatim.

Twenty-three prizes were up for grabs, three top spots and ten each in the merit and consolation categories. The jury comprised Prof Awang Damit, Tew Nai Tong, Wairah Marzuki, Zainol Abidin Ahmad Shariff and Singaporean watercolourist Ong Kim Seng.

Although the competition received wide publicity, the entries numbered only 260 - short of what the organisers expected despite participants being given more than three months to work on the theme 'Enchanting Land, Colourful Life' as reported in the exhibition’s catalogue.

The absence of a first prize winner, in a positive way, reflected the high standard the jury set for this competition.

Two paintings shared the second prize positions - Datuk SK Choo's Putrajaya landscape piece which carried the competition theme and Rohaizad Shaari's bicycles, titled Gelagat. They each won RM8,000 while Pheh It Hao's Missing Beauty was placed third and took home RM6,000.


ACCORDING TO THE THEME: Datuk SK Choo's piece entitled 'Enchanting Land, Colourful Life'.

While works of veterans swamped the exhibition, newcomers also showed much potential. One of them was Mohammad Faizal Zainal (a student of Mansor Ghazalli) who painted the Bangi township at dusk. I like how he used controlled backruns to capture smoke emanating from the housing estate. Although this piece did not win any award, he has shown some mastery of the medium. Good tonal values, including exploiting the white of the paper, have been used to paint the evening light.

SELECTED WORK: Mohammad Faizal Zainal's Evening in Bangi. Note the controlled overruns used to create smoke from the housing estate.

The fondness for detailed work was evident in most pieces. One of them was by Mohd Fouzi Mohd Ani entitled Counting the Days to Putrajaya. It showed an old man relaxing at the unkempt corridor of his house. From the crevices of an uncemented brickwall to the calendar on the wall, the amount of painstaking effort the artist must have put in is amazing.

Not many still-life subjects were depicted in this show, perhaps due to the difficulty of using them to interpret the theme. The few presented focussed mostly on local fruits. The piece on cocoa pods under the sun, painted by Koh Choon Wern, won a consolation prize while Muar artist Yeo Eng Peng's pineapples took the merit award.

Fishing village scenes were in vogue as usual as seen from the works of Yap Eng Huat, Yeo Choon Seng, Yong Look Lam, Khor Seow Hooi, Cheng Yeow Chye and Ahmad Rizal Othman. Most of them depicted boats, with or without human activity. However, Ahmad Rizal's Kg Penarik Terengganu stood out from the rest with the painting of womenfolk sorting fish under a canopy of palm trees. An interesting play of light and shade was employed to depict the time of day, with the presence of the sea simplified in a strip of graded cerulean blue over the top.

Newcomer Cheng Yeow Chye, who came up with his piece titled 'It will be better tomorrow', takes a peek at a fish landing jetty at low tide. Weathered roof trusses, wooden floorboards, net buoys, etc. were painted in such great detail that I wondered why the registration numbers on the boats' bows were left out. That would have given the viewer an idea where the scene was captured!

Bicycle man Chow Chin Chuan showed that he has few equals where his pet subject, the bicycle, is concerned. Two of his works recorded the passage of time via padi field scenery. Two farmers were engrossed in conversation while another tilled the land. While a common thread runs through both in the form of a 'Rolex' bicycle as the main subject, the backgrounds mark the different time frame. One showed a farmer preparing his land with a hoe while the other farmer was already transplanting padi seedlings to a flooded plot.

Although most of the works revolved around the daily lives of Malaysians, one played on the Merdeka celebration theme - probably taking advantage of the timing of the exhibition.

In his Glorious Night (Malam Gemilang), veteran artist Maamor Jantan displayed his signature night scene in watercolour. A riot of cadmium red and yellow captured the intensity of a fireworks display as viewed from an urban village in Kuala Lumpur, winning this piece a merit award. Although night scenes are rare in Malaysian watercolour, Ruslan Abdul Khalid proved that he was just as capable with his Night at Petaling Street, which won a consolation prize.

The visual feast for watercolour lovers is extended beyond the entries selected from the competition, however. A section of the display area was dedicated to works by MWO members, including that of patron Samsudin.

Two of the biggest pieces on show, measuring 73x103cm and painted by MWO chairman Dr Wong Seng Tong, took the limelight - not only by their sheer size but the impressive control and techniques employed, especially on the one entitled PM at Work.

Wong captured Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi drafting his speech for the tabling of the Ninth Malaysia Plan at Seri Perdana. What impressed me most was how reflected light was captured on the subject's face. Something interesting to note here is the luminous glow of turquoise blue Wong used to depict another source of light - possibly from a television screen - on the subject's face and two crystal glasses in front of him.


CHILD'S PLAY: Calvin Chua piece entitled Wah (River Series 9).

Veteran Cheah Yew Saik showed his mastery of the medium in his piece entitled Cloud Song in which he captured the vibrancy of trooping clouds above a village. He is among the few artists I know who has successfully tamed this particular paper using brief strokes to bring out such a beautiful scene.

The transparency of watercolour was also explored in all manners in other works such as Calvin Chua's river series, Mansor Ghazalli's Taman Tasek, Samsudin Osman's Italian scene and SK Choo's Neighbour's Present, to name a few.

Overall, most of the works proved that local watercolourists are a force to be reckoned with. For a medium that is not taken seriously (except maybe as a token examination subject - and even that only at the upper secondary school level), the efforts showed by the participants have certainly strengthened my belief that Malaysian watercolourists are among the best in the region, if not the world. Perhaps with this eye-opener, those involved in promoting the aqua medium can do more to raise its standards and gain better international recognition.