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How About An Annual Landscape Artists Charity Marathon (ALAM)?
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright February 2022
Imagine two days during the driest month in between two monsoons, you’ll get to see artists from all over the country converging on the Botanical Gardens for a painting marathon. I am inspired by Artist@work of Boston Commons held in the summer where artists from all corners of Massachusetts flock to the park just to paint for two days. Their works were later auctioned to the general public.
This is perhaps the only Annual Landscape Artists Charity Marathon (ALAM) that could attract hundreds of professional and amateur artists from all over Malaysia. Others from the region might be interested too for the sake of charity and attractive prizes that await winners.
Some artists would surely say it is by far, the best time of year to paint and they would be doing it for the deserving kids suffering from autism, cancer and other diseases.
Plus they would get to keep some of the proceeds from the charity auction themselves.
“It would indeed be a really rewarding experience”, said Xuen, a young promising artist when asked about such an event. She was born in Sabah and spent some time in the UK honing her skills before returning to Malaysia to start her studio and was looking forward to participating in the event.
On the day of the marathon, Bop Sopan from Seremban could be seen by the lake capturing images of the koi swimming in the water, adding colours to an otherwise plain surface of his canvas.
He said he would be there from dawn to dusk to bring to life images of the flora and fauna found in the garden. His last koi painting, of acrylic on canvas, received overwhelming support from online bidders. We were sure this one would too.
A few hundred meters away from the spot designated to Bop was Gentaj’s who hailed from Kuantan. He would take time adjusting his easel and assembling the tools needed for the two-day marathon.
Gentaj’s paintings tell stories of people in their neighbourhoods. We were hoping he would be able to capture on canvas stories of those who take to morning walks daily around the Lake Gardens.
As you walked away from the lake towards the top of the hill you would see artists placed at strategic locations, hard at work, to produce masterpieces of the year that would be auctioned off after the two-day event to raise funds for charities.
At one corner, Rachel Grey a digital artist could be seen peering through her lenses focusing on a family of monkeys that have made the tall trees their home. She painted the Orang Utan of Sandakan and the proboscis monkeys of Sabah that was recently exhibited at the Malaysia Pavilion in the Dubai Trade Expo. We were hoping she would be able to produce better images of the local monkeys in action for the marathon.
At the end of two days, all paintings would be displayed at an art gallery, awaiting a public auction.
Visitors and would-be bidders could view them from 5 to 7 over high tea.
Refreshments of wine, cheese and other finger foods would be sponsored by various organisations subscribing to art for the betterment of society.
We expect about 500 eye-catching paintings to be auctioned by auction houses like Christie’s with as much as 30% of collections going to deserving charities like Cancer Society or National Autism and others yet to be named.
Please stay tuned for the Annual Landscape Artists Charity Marathon (ALAM) 2022.
Interested artists, charities and would-be sponsors are invited to write to mihardias@gmail.com.
Photo: Rahim Said
Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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