There is something about this elderly Kenyah matriarch that moved Tan Wei Kheng to paint her when he saw her at Long Tugan in Ulu Baram in 2005. Her grey mane with the elongated earlobes give her a regal aura, and there is a serenity in her face like one who had experienced the odds and hardships. The stacked sacks behind, probably of cereals, suggest a surfeit of needs despite her simple nature, clad in only a sarong and adorned with a necklace and carved earrings. Perhaps, it’s the simplicity and kind look that add to her obvious beauty. Wei Kheng started out as a ceramist but found his calling in portraitures soon enough, and has established himself as a major artist of the indigenous tribes of Sarawak like the Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Kelabit and Iban. With a group of volunteers, he regularly goes into the deep interiors not only to paint the people, some nomadic and inaccessible, but also brings food supplies and medication. His breakthrough was in 2009 when his Nostalgia of Tribal Borneo at the Gallery Avanthay Contemporary in Zurich, Switzerland was sold out. From his first solo at the Miri Boat Club (1991), he was featured at Richard Koh Fine Art in a solo called Language Of The Jungle.