GEORGE TOWN, Oct 1 — The art of capturing Penang’s myriad heritage buildings is one that many artists have made on various media ranging from watercolour to charcoal studies.
Local artist Lijynn stands out with her black-and-white Chinese ink paintings of Penang’s pre-war shophouses, churches, temples and streetscapes on a variety of found materials, including tree bark and salvaged roof tiles.
“I started painting on found objects such as palm leaves, discarded joss paper, tree bark, coconut husk, bamboo stems and roof tiles,” she said.
She has even made used of sharpened twigs as “brushes” to create her masterpieces.
This is because Lijynn wanted to use a medium that is more environmental-friendly.
“I want to reduce materialism so I use only the barest minimum of things to create my artworks,” she said.
She said she uses only Chinese ink for all her artwork as it is versatile and weatherproof.
The artist, who hailed from Kuala Lumpur but has made Penang her home for many years, started sketching back in 2012 when she joined the weekly sketching sessions with Penang’s Urban Sketchers.
That was when she created a majority of her artworks, a large chunk of which are painted on heritage roof tiles salvaged from the Sun Yat-Sen Museum when the building was being restored.
A total 22 of the Roof Tiles series are now being exhibited in a mixed group exhibition at the Hin Bus Depot.
Each tile featured a different building or streetscape, from the intricately carved facade of Khoo Kongsi to rows of heritage shophouses in George Town.
Each artwork is meticulous. Some were even painted on-site where Lijynn spent hours painting.
“Some of these were painted based on old postcards and some, I painted on-site so those on-site artworks were completed within hours, up to maybe six hours or so depending on the complexity of the building,” she said.
The artworks exhibited were painted between 2012 and 2014, but Lijynn plans to continue with the series.
“I am also doing commissioned artworks too so I have to find time to continue this series,” she said.
The mixed group exhibition at Hin Bus Depot features 15 artists and 60 artworks of various mediums including sculptures and paintings on canvas.
Works by artists such as Tan Kuan Aw, Dhiyanah Hassan, Nasir Nadzir, Aboud Fares, Anees Maani, Alvin Koay, The Sliz, Sumidik and Bibichun are showcased.
Another artist, Winnie Cheng who used the name Eryn in her art, showcased works using India ink on layered paper cuts under her Diorama series titled My Future Exists Because Yours Doesn’t, Vice, and Versa.
“My Future Exists Because Yours Doesn’t deals with the ecological burden our unchecked human development has caused in the environment,”
“It is a vision of the future where the tiger only exists as a hologram and the characters are looking out at hills made up of ghostly shells of buildings under construction,” she explained.
The other two, Vice and Versa deals with the long-term implications of corruption.
“In Vice the monster in the middle hoards all the colourful hearts for itself and in Versa, the monster is dead and the little shadow people all have their hearts back,” Erynn said.
The exhibition is open daily from noon to 8pm until October 10.
