Monsoon Gust - By Abdullah Ariff - To Be auctioned

I have been informed that an original watercolour by Abdullah Ariff titled "Monsoon Gust" will be sold at auction on Tuesday (May 27th) by the Rowley's auctioneers in Newmarket, Suffolk, England.

According to Silas Currie (Auctioneer and Head Of Valuations
Rowley's - Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers), the work was signed and dated 1955 and measures 37 by 54cm. I was also informed that the reserved price would be around 3,000 British Pounds.

If there are any Malaysians out there - as the National Art Gallery has not made any enquiry about it since I listed information and whereabouts of this national treasure on this site and even after having written to one of the officials of they were interested - here is your chance to bring the work home.

Thank you.

Derwent's Wash Pencils

I found these at the local art store - Derwent watercolour pencils for washes. I had earlier last year found its watersoluble graphite pencils but found them to be too dark and smudgy.

These however are more forgiving and produce pretty good and even washes. I only found Medium and Light grades, but I suspect there are other grades. Too bad the art store did not have a catalogue - old stock I think.

As you can see, I did a sketch on an old tyre on the deck of a wooden boat, alternating between light and medium grades in areas of contrast. For deeper values, I go over the first lines of medium grades to produce really dark areas (value 8?).

Oh, they cost about RM2.50 Malaysian each.