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A Century of Art

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RAMSAY posing with one of his art exhibits on tree barks.

WITHOUT a doubt, Sarawak has many talented artists and quite a few have actually went on to become well-known in this region. But, the one that stands out the most among the crowd of the state’s budding artists is 75-yearsold Ramsay Ong who is also currently participating in What About Kuching (WAK) 2017 month long event exhibiting over 100 pieces of his artwork at Pullman Hotel here.

“I am 75 years old and I thought of doing 75 pieces but I exceeded my quota from 70 to over 100 pieces so I have reached a century, “ he laughed when I interviewed him recently.

“It’s about 4 years of accumulated work and ideas and why century.. it is because I mean I used to watch cricket matches in Sri Lanka. So when the players batted 4 points, 6 points and two points, that means they have reached a century which is the top score,” he explained to me while laughing.

“I am not active in sports so I used tree barks to do my art work and I have already done 100 tigers and 100 elephants. I spent about 10 years in Sri Lanka from 1992. When I was in London, I contracted a water borne disease in 2014 which almost took my life..it almost killed me. “I was two weeks on induced coma ..it slows down my organs..

I was hospitalised in London,” he disclosed. “So, I was in Sri Lanka, like I have said, from 1992 for about 10 years. While there, I paint. I do a lot of work. Those ( pointing to his exhibited art works at the lobby of the hotel) when I do my paintings in Sri Lanka,” he added. Ramsay said he does come back to Kuching for short holidays during the 10 years he was away.

‘Whenever I come back to Kuching, I took the paintings to Gallery M at the Kuching Hilton, once owned by Margaret Tan for a period of two to three years. “After my trip from Sri Lanka, my nephew started an art gallery in Kuala Lumpur in the year 2000 where he has asked me to exhibit all my art works,” he said. He added that his experience in Kuala Lumpur lasted till 2005 and “it was a very good experience.” “I made a lot of contacts.

It was a good place for networking. I met people from high brow activities and friends of the gallery like the late Datin Seri Endon ( wife of the former Prime Minister Tan Sri Badawi) and she was very interested in batik where she helped to organise batik competitions and also at that time, our then federal Minister Datuk Sulaiman Daud, he was also there..,” he related his experience. Ramsay added that after 5 years in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, he decided it was “too taxing in terms of rental.”

“We were located at Changkat at Bukit Bintang and the rental there is expensive. Just for rental alone, we spents almost a RM1 million so it was not viable. But, having said that, even then, I shouldn’t given up because now, the rent for one unit is RM30,000.

Then, it was RM8,000 and we have two units,” he said, adding that it was due to Changkat’s being a prime area for food and beverage and it was also a good venue for networking. “Maybe, unless we were selling something else, maybe we were able to sustain it,” he said, adding that he has to come back to Kuching regardless as he has to work.

“At the time also, I have finished my contract and it was just time to close shop in 2005,” he said. “So, when I come back here (Kuching), I started to become involved with a branch in Kuching at the Main Bazaar. I was there for about a couple of years until about 2010,” he said, adding that he also became a bit restless after having worked for so long. “My nephew and my niece also got other interests during the period of time.

Being an artist and a businessman takes a lot of energy so I sold it ( the shop at Main Bazaar) on to Nelson Tan so he took over my business. I got out of the place for awhile and then , I started to get involved with Edric Ong. Ramsay, the ever exuberant artist, also described some of his current artwork on exhibit at the Pullman Hotel Kuching which includes a variety of beautiful orchids and cross breed orchids such as the Blue Vendors which have been cross breed with the Blue Moon Orchid. On his favourite number 100, he laughed and said its a revered number by the Chinese.

“It’s also very well respected in that sense. The highest score to hit in cricket, for examples , is 100 wickets. So, that has always inspired me to achieve 100 paintings. It’s a lot of work. Of course, I do not just based my works on quantity..100 pieces with good quality,” laughed. “But, in art, it’s not always 100 per cent.

There maybe some magic moments that you hit a perfect painting. Creativity is the same. On my own pieces, I cannot be the judge of my own work because when I do, other times, its good.” “So its best, when you paint, don’t judge your own work.

Always try to improve as go along and when it does not seem to be perfect or good, do not just chucked it away. You can use that as a stepping stone..it’s always useful for something very good,” he kindly advised.

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