Friday, April 16, 2010

The Making Of "An Egret Invasion"



Original Painting


Title:     An Egret Invasion
Medium:    Acrylic on canvas
Size:    3 ft x 4 ft
Artist:    Maba

An Egret Invasion

The Malaysian mangroves are melancholic most of the time with occasional sound from the local residents such as the kingfishers, night herons and of course the ubiquitous cicadas. September and October greet the coming of egrets. Escaping from the cold north, they arrive in great numbers to roost, feed and nest for the rest of winter. Although we may consider these birds as visitors, but they have every right to be here as they are the true global resident, migrating to and fro from Siberia down to Peninsula Malaysia without fail since time immemorial.

The scene is preserved in this painting to remind us of the precious heritage (the mangroves and the inhabitants) that we may have overlooked and often sacrificed in the name of progress.

Maba.


Seni Tampak Art Competition @ Galeri Seni Johor - December 2009

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

An Egret Invasion. woow so powerful bird the egret is.... :-)

a wonderful and powerful creation.

Unknown said...

Someone whom I admire his comment, found that the title “An Egret Invasion” rather odd. It sounds unwelcome to the egret… he said.

My answer to his question :

:-) Why Invasion? - at first glance, it sounds aggressive, yes!...but they arrive in big numbers seasonally, and they are "perceived" as if invading the place, where they stop to roost, feed and nest for the rest of winter.

The title "An Egret Invasion" is an irony to those people, like yourself, who really understand the true nature of the egrets. I should have put the title as "An Egret Invasion?" Anyway, to the masses, they probably do not notice the oddity.