Batik within a batik – that is one of Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng’s favourite artistic devices in his repertoire. The bright orange-and-red themed of the sarung of the woman in the foreground contrasts with the baby cloth cradle with its austere dull apple green and luminous green. The baby seems to be growing a bit big for the sarong cradle with a clump of hair noticeably jutting out. The overwhelming W-shaped posterior of the woman, possibly the mother, hints at a well-endowed baby-bearing hips with the torso arched to the right and the head, with the long hair neatly tied into a bulbous knot slanted to the left. On her right can be seen a wicker basket, so she must be doing something else while rocking her baby to sleep. The rocking works like a lullaby but the woman’s buttocks denotes the solidity and stability of a mother’s care. Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng, world acknowledged as the originator of Batik Painting, never stopped innovating since he developed the art in 1953. In Chinese Art In The 20th Century (1959), Professor Michael Sullivan wrote: “In Teng, Malaya claims to have found her first national painter. Teng has conceived the idea of making pictures in batik – not just decorative designs, but large and frequently complex figure compositions.” He was the first Malaysian (after British-born Peter Harris) to be given a Retrospective in 1965 by the National Art Gallery (The NAG again accorded him a Tribute exhibition in 2008), while Penang accorded him a Retrospective in 1994. In 1998, he was conferred a Dato’ship and in 2005, Penang’s ‘Live Heritage Award’. Images of his works, Two Of A Kind (1968) and Tell You A Secret (1987) were chosen for UNICEF’s greeting cards. He was the only Malaysian in a roll of great world artists invited to take part in the Commonwealth Artists of Fame exhibition in London, to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1977.