Watercolours is a popular and affordable medium of art available to people of all ages. However, it is also one of the most difficult media to master. Besides it’s affordability (oil paints were beyond the means of many ordinary people even today) watercolour paints could easily be found in stationary shops and family-run convenience stores. Due to its fluid nature and quick drying properties, it allows or pushes the painter to capture or create images quickly, spontaneously and even creatively, leading some to arrive at distinct styles of strokes or translucency. Besides a personal approach to making pictures in watercolour, the subject matter or themes too are important. Some watercolourists are instantly recognized by their choice of subject matter, thematic approaches and use of metaphors. Aesthetically, watercolour paintings are pleasing. When done right, it draws out the poetic and contemplative from the deceptively ordinary and mundane while preserving forever the magical feelings of the momentous and the serendipitous. It can also induce a sense of nostalgia or poignancy for peoples and places, real and imaginary. Watercolour painters were the earliest promoters of an idyllic image of the country and its people which accounts for its popularity with expats and tourists who bought them as gifts and mementos. Today, watercolour paintings are highly regarded with some local watercolourists commanding princely sums for their work.  

Watercolour painting has a special place in the story of our local art history. It is no coincidence that ordinary Malayans were first exposed to water-based media such as poster colour or watercolours in schools during the colonial era. Among the upper echelons of society in 18th century Great Britain, to be proficient in painting, among other artistic disciplines, was a sign of having received a well-rounded education. As a practical tool to document and illustrate, it was used by British mapmakers, military officers, botanists, engineers etc during the age of exploration and colonization. The British brought with them their influences including artistic practices i.e naturalistic representations of reality, through the education system. In the west, water-based media such as watercolours is traditionally used in preparatory sketches for a painting, usually oil. It is a quick and rudimentary way for an artist to document or compose an image. The subject matter is captured in a few deft strokes and completed with swift translucent washes on a sketchbook or paper to be reproduced later in detail on a canvas. The earliest practitioners of watercolour painting during colonial times would have been the British themselves who came as expats, traveler-artists, merchants and colonial officers. Among the earliest works found in the country’s national art collection were the watercolour paintings of Frank Swettenham (1850-1946). As a colonial officer serving from 1896-1901, he helped to shape British policy and the structure of British administration in the Malay Peninsula. Frank Swettenham was also prolific as a writer and an amateur painter. Together with two unknown artists, William Samwell and George Gilles, both whom he had hired to join him on expeditions, mostly by river to the remote parts of the Malay peninsula, North Borneo and Sarawak which were under the British administration, the trio documented their journey, the surrounding terrain, the local and immigrant workforce and their activities. 

The British did not establish art academies or museums during their 131-year rule to provide formal training or recognition of art in Malaya unlike other colonial powers in the region which had done so at least half a century earlier. Even though art was taught in some private schools since the 1900s, it was only introduced into government schools in the early 1920s. Art became a subject that can be taken by students sitting for the Overseas Cambridge School Certificate examination. 

Importance was placed on its practical aspects rather than aesthetics. Decades later, art teaching was standardized under the supervision of Peter Harris (1923-2009) the Superintendent of Art education in 1951. 

Those who pursued art as a discipline at that time were mostly self-taught with the exception of a few foreign born who did received formal art training in their country of origin. Educated Chinese emigre, most who had received instructions in calligraphy and ink painting were drawn to the medium due to the similarities of its approach and application. There was also the shared sentimental and philosophical outlook towards nature behind the creation of such paintings. Idealized depictions of the local people and their surroundings were the usual tropes. Landscapes, scenic spots, kampung houses, fishing villages and towns were presented in a picturesque way. Prewar artists who were regarded for their watercolours were Yong Mun Sen (1896-1962), Kuo Ju Ping (1913-1966), Khaw Sia (1913-1984) and Abdullah Ariff (1904-1962). As a self-taught artist, Abdullah Ariff also had the distinction of being one of two non-Western members of the Penang Impressionists Society which was founded in the 1920s. A number of noteworthy watercolourist to emerged from the post war and independence era were Tan Choon Ghee (1930-2010), A.J Rahman (1922-1995), A. B Ibrahim (1925-1977), Nik Zainal Abidin Nik Salleh (1933-1993) and Tay Mo Leong (b.1938) just to name a few. According to Long Thien Shih (b.1946) a post Merdeka watercolourist and painter who went on the established himself as a leading printmaker of popular symbolic imagery, there were no groups or societies for watercolourists at that time. Most artists were skilled in various media and watercolours was one of them. Local watercolourists would look to the works of Singaporean artists especially Lim Cheng Hoe (1912-1979) and Chen Chong Swee (1910-1985), both teaching staffs of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) which was established in 1938. The former students of NAFA would return and established the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) in 1967 and the Kuala Lumpur College of Art (KLCA) in 1968. Together with the then Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM) formed in 1967, these 3 institutions have trained the majority of the artists in this country, with not a few who are today’s significant exponents of watercolour painting. The founder of KLCA, Cheah Yew Saik (b.1939) a respected educator, painter and watercolourist, had also established the Malaysian Watercolour Society (MWS) in 1985. With this society, practitioners now have an exclusive platform with which to present and promote their works to the wider public.

The 1980s and 1990s were exciting times for watercolour practitioners with many names that became synonym with the media. They are Mansor Ghazali (1930-2009), Mokhtar Ishak (b.1939), Khalil Ibrahim (1934-2018), Lam Siong Onn (b. 1937), Mohd Sani Md Dom (1944-2019), Abdul Ghani Ahmad (b.1945), Keng Seng Choo (b.1945), Tham Siew Inn (b.1946), Victor Chin (b.1949), Lye Yau Fatt (b.1950), Chin Kon Yit (b.1950), Osman Akbar Long (b.1948), Shafie Hj Hassan (b.1958), Chang Fee Meng (b.1959), Calvin Chua Cheng Koon (b.1961), Maamor Jantan (b.1961), Chow Chin Chuan (b.1961), Yong Look Lam (b. 1962), Khoo Cheang Jin (b.1963) and many others. The list of artists presented here is by no means exhaustive. Other important figures such as Dr. Wong Seng Tong (b.1939) and Tan Sri Samsudin Osman (b.1947) had played significant roles in bringing attention and support to this media.

Indeed, there were many outstanding and respected practitioners, especially those based outside of the capital which this modest writing does not cover. Their invaluable contributions to the art of watercolour painting in this country was to make the medium interesting, accessible and appreciated by society through exhibitions, workshops and in their capacities as art teachers. 

Today, a new generation of watercolourists have also emerged, continuing the passion for this medium that began in this country more than a century ago. Among those active in the local watercolour painting scene are Hishammuddin bin Salmin (b.1973), Tan Suz Chiang (b.1974), Rizalman Misran (b.1976), Abey Zoul (b. 1976), Brian Tai (b.1976) and Azman Nor (b.1985) just to name a few.

This exhibition, entitled ‘Of Moments and Memories: A Malaysian Watercolour Experience’ is supported by Maybank Foundation and organized by the MWS as part of its annual show. Comprised of professionals and amateurs, it features the works of 74 artists, some who are deceased. The works in the exhibition are divided into different categories by subject matter namely still life/nature (Flora & Fauna), kampung scenes/landscape, boats and fishing villages, towns and the city, abstractions and human activities. Each category highlights the medium’s flexibility and the practitioner’s dexterity.

‘Of Moments and Memories…’ offers a unique take on a slice of local life, its daily nuances deftly captured and immortalized by different generations of Malaysian watercolourists. 

‘Of Moments and Memories…’ is also a paean and homage to the people and places in this blessed land we call home.

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