To those used to Haji Widayat’s dull palette of dull brown and rustic brown, his penchant for Flamboyant (Royal Poinciana) must be “party time”. The bright orangey-red hues are not the only eye-catcher to the Indonesian artist; the tree also provides shade in tropical Southeast Asia, where it blossoms variously and profusely from March to July; and sometimes, the tree does not grow upwards ramrod straight, but leans and bends to the left or to the right like a bonsai gymnastics. Widayat had painted the Flamboyant as early as 1975 right up to the new millennium until his death in 2002. It’s a beautiful sight with the sub-branches holding up bouquets of ‘red’ cauliflower-like bulbs. It is popularly called flame of the forest, and in Malaysia, semarak. Other names include Delonix regia and phoenix flower. Haji Widayat is the creator of a style dubbed Magical Decorative or Mysticism. He was even given a retrospective by Singapore, at the Singapore Art Museum in 2007, titled Widayat Between Worlds. A late starter in art – he graduated from the Indonesian Academy of Fine Arts (Asri) in Yogyakarta in 1949, at the age of 31. Previously, he worked as a map-maker and surveyor. Besides painting, he also delved into sculptures and ceramics.