Rice-growing is a back-breaking task, especially before the advent of automation and quality-yield technology. Land preparation which includes tillage, transplanting, fertilisers, weeding, harvesting, threshing, sorting and distribution. Though we often speak of farmers as masculine, it’s actually barefoot women (wonder how they overcome the leeches) in conical hats bending over for hours on the field, tying up the padi stalks in bundles after reaping. An interesting diversion is the conical (of hats and reams of stalks) and chequered (on the sarong) patterns. There is a sense of unbalance with the figure in the foreground standing on one leg but the eye is drawn to the unusually bright blue attire of the figure in the background, stabilized by the pole bearing tied reams of padi. 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.