This 2004 painting of the 289-year-old Guan Im Teng Temple (Goddess of Mercy Temple) in Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling (Pitt Street) in Penang is telling for the ‘busy-ness’ in the front courtyard complete with feeding pigeons, and with a large wheel-based incense urn on the left. The courtyard is less cluttered now after major renovations which included repairs to the intricate roof tiles chien nien (broken pottery) ornamentation. Devotees are no longer allowed to take joss-sticks into the interiors, probably as a fire safety precaution. For Eston Tan, a Penang boy, his rendition of the temple with the palette knife is unusually rough-textured and crustily pigmented. Many do not know, however, that the original sitting pantheon of the temple was Mazu (Mah Chor Poh), the patron saint of the seafarers, but it was changed to Guan Im (Avalokitesvara) after the 1824 renovations, with several other deities added. Eston Tan, now based in Taiwan because of the better art market and the more sophisticated scene, had his art tutelage at the Malaysian Institute of Art, Kuala Lumpur, graduating with a diploma in 1991, and a stint from 1992-1993 at the One Academy, Petaling Jaya. He had a brief teaching stint before deciding to go full-time into art in 2000, and held his first of five solos, called Thoughts On Life, at the NN Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 2004 – until 2012. Though raised with five other siblings by a single mother, he had been painting since the age of 10 and showed early promise when he won the Minor Award in the Penang Young Talent competition in 1999, and clinching the Major Award the next year. His first overseas solo called City of Lights was held at the Affinity for Art in Hong Kong in 2014. A vastly improved and serious artist, Eston Tan saw an oil on jute sold for the highest premium of RM45,089 at the Christie’s Asian Contemporary Art auction in Hong Kong in November 2013.