JACARANDA IN SYDNEY - Acrylic on canvas board 30x40 cm, 2017

November in Sydney Australia is spring time and the city is bathed in violet Jacaranda blooms. Jacaranda tress are everywhere in Sydney. One street in particular in the suburb of Kirribilli is well known for its "violet corridor". This painting is a depiction of that street viewed from the park.

ISTANA BOGOR - the making of

GILING PADI video

A fast and rough video made from a series of photographs of my "Giling Padi" painting to show its development from start to finish. Pardon the video quality as the photographs were taken in various lighting conditions

GILING PADI - Acrylic on canvas 50x60cm, 2017

This was a scene from one of my visits to Bali Indonesia where a group of men were working on a paddy field. It was harvest time and they were milling rice with a machine on the field, collecting the grains and bagging the stalks into sacks. The scene was so typical across Indonesia and in particular within Bali. It not only depicts the harvest of the staple food of the people - the rice - but it also illustrates the cooperative spirit of the community commonly referred to in Indonesia as "gotong royong".

I started the painting on October 3rd and finished it on October 31st. I took a series of time lapse photographs of the painting as it developed and I will make a movie out of the photo series.

JOKO WIDODO - watercolor on paper, 21x29cm, 2016

SAWAH SKETCH - water color and ballpoint pen on paper, 15x21cm, 2017

BARACK OBAMA - water color and ballpoint pen on paper, 15x21cm, 2017

ISTANA BOGOR - Acrylic on canvas 150x120cm, 2017

This is the biggest painting I have ever made so far. The palace was built by the Dutch and was partly rebuilt after a past earthquake in Bogor. There are two sides of the palace, this is the north side. The south side has large lily pond and is where many deers roam freely. There are deers on the north side too but I opted not to include them in this painting. The sight of the deers is my fondest childhood memory whenever me and my family drove past Bogor usually on our way to Bandung or Sukabumi. The background is Mount Salak - a dormant volcano. The big tree in the foreground is a Beringin tree with its many hanging roots.

STUDY OF PROPORTION - ballpoint pen sketch on paper 21x29cm, 2010

TEPI SAWAH - Acrylic on canvas, 10x20 inches, 2017

A typical Indonesian panorama of sawah (rice field). This particular scene was inspired from the view from my favorite brunch cafe beside the sawah in Bali.

CIPANAS PALACE 1 - a preliminary study, acrylic on canvas, 16x20 inches, 2017

This palace is one of six Indonesian presidential palaces and is located in the mountain side area called Cipanas - about 80 kilometers south east of Jakarta. It is modest in comparison to its Bogor or Jakarta counterparts, but it is in a cooler mountain climate. Very few official state functions were held here thus making it relatively unknown to most.

BALINESE DANCER - acrylic on canvas, 14x18 inches, 2017

Balinese dance is famous for its amazing beauty. It has distinctive moves, dazzling costume colors, intricate finger moves, unforgettable facial expressions and many more truly stunning details. Details that is the hallmark of a highly sophisticated culture. In this painting I tried to capture only a mere fraction of those details.

BOGOR PALACE 1 - a preliminary study, acrylic on canvas board, 12x16 inches, 2017

This a preliminary study of Bogor Palace, one of six presidential palaces of Indonesia. This view is from a huge "Beringin" tree on the north side of the palace ground looking south west towards the palace's north facade with Mount Salak in the background.

OFFERING PROCESSION, Acrylic on canvas board, 16x20 inches, 2017

The painting depicts a group of women in Bali walking and carrying various offerings on their head. In Bali you often see women carry and balance things on their heads especially in grand traditional ceremonies where foods and other items are to be offered to the Gods.

PRAWN SATAY - Crayon on cardboard, 20x37cm, 2007