The Coconut Man.

I planned to paint this old man for quite some time already. He served my family with fresh coconut drink when we went to his eating place at Teluk Ketapang, Kuala Terengganu.

A sketch is all I have now but I need to do something about it.

watercolor sketch of d' coconut man

My photos references are not enough to show what I want in the painting. I need some ‘interaction‘.. between the man and viewers. Well, let me go back to my drawing board for a while…need time to think…to make it more interesting.. to show not only a friendly coconut man..but a man who is proud of what he’s doing.

 

A Blogger’s Block

I am still amazed by others who blog constantly and manage to produce great artworks to share with their readers. Sometimes I ask myself whether my passion in Art is any less than them..? Actually I tried.. I have set target to at least blog on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But came Monday, I just stared at the screen.. fingers spread across my keyboard.. and my mind went blank. Even now as I’m typing, I’m not sure where this is going. Hmm..

My bee was telling me, to be a good writer; you have to read a lot. And to be a good friend; be a good listener- just let the person talk about him or herself more than you talk about yourself. Man, I feel I have a lot more reading to do in order to improve my writing skill even though no one is grading my performance but I really don’t mind the ‘listening’ part. I guess I’m a bit of a private person. Normally, I hate talking about myself. However, when I’ve decided to create my blog with the purpose to literally record my life as an artist, I’m actually challenging myself to be more open and share things that I may usually keep for myself and those who are close to me. I believe in another way, it helps me improve my writing skill- and I really want to do that!

I have seen many writings that are simply a joy to read and Earnest Hemingway’s “The Old Man & The Sea” was the first literature that hooked me to the world of words.

But another reason was about 17 years ago; I had an English teacher named Mr. Hakikat Singh. He said, “You write in English whatever you want to write. Don’t worry about grammar, whatsoever and just express yourself with words you could understand. If you speak, speak in English. If you dream also; dream in English!,”

A Sketch from Memory

Mr. Haki, as we called him; made us create a book that compiled every week’s assignment of story writing with different theme each weeks. The best thing about it was that those Stories were about our experiences in past, present or future lives. He would not grade our grammatical errors (except if they kept occurring throughout our writings). That way, everyone was encouraged to express him/herself in English freely. Apart from that he asked us to do newspaper cutting on articles that we enjoy reading especially about ‘Life’- maybe about a person, about a writer’s adventures or misadventures.. about one’s culture.. one’s opinion.. stuff like that. He also asked everyone in the class to write a -bombastic-word- a-day, found in the dictionary or any reading materials and write it and its meaning on the white board. That way, all of us could learn a new English word every day.

Over the years, the desire to write always lingers around my heart. But I feel I’m not good enough. Plus, I still don’t have a good story to tell just yet. What I’d love to do most is to illustrate my own writing and produce a series of Children Illustrated Storybook. But what would the Story be? hmmm..

Hundreds of times I went to bookstores and checked out latest children’s storybooks. It’s overwhelming to see almost all the stories you could think of were already out there in the market. Madonna and Brooke Shields have also written their illustrated children storybooks. But with their status as celebrities, their fans would jump at the first opportunity to have the books. What difference would mine be if I do write one? Nobody’s even heard my name as a writer or illustrator. Hehe.. maybe I just should write one first before even asking that question.

Silly me. Angan-angan jer banyak…

Well, perhaps my blogger’s block is just because I have so many things to say and so many ideas to realize that I do not know what to write exactly or where to start. I just know that I have some goals to achieve and my mission is still possible when time and energy are here with me. But the clock is ticking.. tick tock.. tick tock. Is it 88 minutes already? Aaaaaargh!!

 

Money Plant.. money..?

Plants are so important to you and me. I find it hard to understand when people cut the green trees down for a reason such as,”.. Annoying. Too many leaves fall on my car..” Sometimes, the trees are cut down to make ways for development. Arrgh!! It’s an eyesore when suddenly a lush area of greens became red and dusty with only dry grounds filling the air.

Ok. I’m not like an avid environmentalist or a gardener but of course I love the Trees, Plants, Nature and stuff. Now that I live in an apartment, there’s not so much space nor ground for me to plant anything.. but I make sure to have a couple of big pots of greens in the living room. And because I love the simple things in life (or just plain lazy–hehe), I’ve made sure that the plants are easy to take care of.

There’s one plant in particular that I simply love and it’s called MONEY PLANT. Can you guess how it gets it’s name? Here’s what I’ve found out- It is called the money plant simply because it has round, plump, flat leaves that might, with a bit of imagination, look like a coin! This plant is usually kept as a dwarf in the house but can be grown in the garden too. But here’s another thing that I’ve found out- The belief is that while it thrives, one would never be short of money. It is also called a friendship plant, as it is easy to propagate. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/open-space/Why-did-the-money-plant-get-it-name-from/articleshow/1256942.cms)

Cool, huh? Now I love my money plant even more. Actually, last week I picked a stem with just ONE leaf at my parents’ house and pot it in the apartment. This week, I have FOUR leaves already!!  The fact that I could take care this tiny beautiful creation of God healthily has really made my day :). It really doesn’t take much for me to feel happy. And so, I decided to make a watercolor portrait sketch for it.

So next, I was thinking why not this creature I so love became my muse in bigger painting? Perhaps, it could lead to some abstracts or semi-abstracts kind of artwork.. hmm.. (sketch-sketch-sketch!)

Yeah…I think I’ll work with this idea right now. Will update more later. Could I be planting ‘money’ in this magic pot too, perhaps..?