Art pieces I am working on.- "Reclaimation"

When this very building that i am presently working form was first constructed a couple of years back, I salvaged some artworks and photos that were left in the rubles of the old building. The old  building was sued as offices by a few lecturers but mostly were left abandoned. hence when they tore down the building allot of art materials were thrown out by the constructors and these some of them.

I assume they must have belonged to former students as was part of their assignments in Black and White photography. and they could have even belonged to my late friend Ismail Hashim's students as he was one of those teaching photography back then. These photos has no names most of them and most were waterlogged from the rain.  

I kept most that were salvageable and it has been almost three years now and i finally decided to do something with them, I add colors to the Black and White and as i started painting they kept reminding me of my friend Ismail Hashim and how he was also in the process of adding colors to his Black and Whites before he died.

Most non artist i showed these pieces to found it hard o distinguish that they were originally B&W Pictures and so I deciede to leave some parts of the pictures as they were.

I used water colors mostly and where i deemed necessary i applied acrylic colors to get the opaque quality that is not attainable with ordinary water color.

The subject matters were not mineas they must have been the student's chosen subjects for their projects and it is sad that i came upon these photos a little too late to save them as most were destroyed by the rain when the building was torn down. Otherwise it would have been interesting to be able to create these works in a series as the owner had
intended them to be.

These pictures of a Malay lady dehusking or removing the coconut husk fo example is precious but I could only save these few.

My camera did not do justice taking these pictures for the lighting was poor but suffice to say that I am quite contented to be able to save these pictures and perhaps promote them further as pieces of art that is today admired by many i have shared them with. 

I am still working on a few more and have been asked to exhibit them when i am done.