Saturday, March 29, 2008

Abdullah Jones produces batek paintings using nature, animals and people (mostly women) as the subjects. This is the type of paintings sought after by the tourists as they reflect the ability of the Malaysian artists to use a technique alien to them.

He uses a brush as oppose to the traditional ‘chanting’ method to create the outline of the design and colour it before applying sodium silicate and dunking it into hot water to remove the wax and set the colour. The process is repeated for 4 to 5 times to produce batek paintings which are rich in colours and designs.

The usual process of producing batek takes about one day but his mentioned-technique took him 4 to 5 days to complete a painting. That’s in itself reflecting the quality of his works.

However, none of his batek is features in this entry. We will put them here once we have them.



artist : abdullahjones
title : two trees under the rain
size : 1.5'x 1.5'
media : acrylic on canvas
price : rm230/usd70.00



artist : abdullahjones
title : three trees
size : 1.5'x 1.5'
media : acrylic on canvas
price : rm230/usd70.00



artist : abdullahjones
title : two trees in blue
size : 1.5'x 1.5'
media : acrylic on canvas
price : rm230/usd70.00

After living in the UK for some time, he ventured into more diverse techniques and taking various objects as subjects. He learnt that English artists aren’t afraid to portray comedy in their works. This inspired him to inject more fun to his paintings. For example, in his ‘jangan dilepaskan seekor kambing yang tersepit takut jadi seperti melepaskan anjing yang tersepit’, he presented two goats who are discussing whether to free their friend from a haunted tree. This is one example of observation that can be humorous (in the eyes of the goats).



artist : abdullahjones
title : hanging around
size : 1.5'x 1.5'
media : acrylic on canvas
price : rm230/usd70.00



artist : abdullahjones
title : everything is his
size : 4'x 4'
media : mixed
price : rm2300/usd720.00
media : mixed media on board



artist: abdullahjones
title: of waves and a boat
size : 3'x3'
media: acrylic on canvas
price: rm1200/usd375.00



As humorous as he is, Abdullah Jones does have a sensitive side. This is shown is his painting titled ‘pink tree and the white haired thing’. The painting was produced out of his sadness for the death of 19 Chinese workers who drowned when they were trapped by a rampaging night tide while picking cockles in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire in 2004.



artist : abdullahjones
title : two trees with red background
size : 1.5'x 1'
media : acrylic on canvas
price : rm430/usd130.00