Is that a flipperty-flopperty hat, and all in red; a pantomime game in jest, nocturnal at best? A scarlet pimpernel with broad chin and half the head covered in some outlandish headgear or a mangled heap of ruffled cloth may not be ideal what with the gender ambiguity. But then, on a night like this, there’s magic in the air and yes, mischief’s afoot as can be gleaned from the sly look of the figure dominating the canvas. The figure is in the open, with palms swaying in the wind. Apart from his portrait sketches in pastels, Peter Harris is known for his surrealistic bent and imaginative allegorical narratives akin to poet-artist William Blake in his major works. Peter Harris is a pioneering artist-academician best known for his setting up of the Wednesday Art Group in 1952. He helped set up the foundation of art education in the then Malaya as art superintendent from 1951 to 1960, and returned to teach at Gaya College in Sabah from 1962 to 1967. He was accorded the country’s first Retrospective by the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1960, and was given a comeback Retrospective at GaleriWan, Kuala Lumpur, in 1997, and by The Art Gallery, Penang (TAGP), in 2001. TAGP held a tribute Memorial exhibition for him in 2009 at Art Salon@SENI, Kuala Lumpur, after his demise on March 14. Peter Harris was educated at the West of England College of Art (1939) and was awarded the MBE (Member, Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1963.