The scene of women dominating the Siti Khatijah market in Kota Baru, as depicted by Kow Leong Kiang in this 1996 work, may be a thing of the past as the Islam-orientated PAS government, in power since 1990, imposed greater and tighter restrictions on the women populace. Next year, for example, Muslim women working in hypermarkets and fastfood outlets, must cover their aurat and wear long-sleeved uniforms. Kelantan women are known for their entrepreneurial spirit and diligence and the restrictions may force them to stay at home. Kelantan, when it was part of Siamese Patani in the early years, was ruled by a succession of four queens identified by colours – Green, Blue, Purple and Yellow – from the 16th Century (1548) to the mid-17th Century. But until then, Kow’s brilliantly crafted painting captures the thrust and rhythm of the Kota Baru market life. Kow, who spent a considerable period at this time in Kelantan and Terengganu, is known for capturing the rustic, innocent charms of the Kelantan damsels, young and old. Kow graduated from the now-defunct Kuala Lumpur College of Art in 1991 and proved his promise when he won the Minor Award in the Young Contemporary Artist competition in 1992, but it was his winning the Grand Prize of the Philip Morris Asean Art Awards in 1998, for his work, Mr Foreign Speculator, Stop Damaging Our Country, that entrenched him as a significant figurative artist. In 2004, Kow won a two-month Freeman Foundation fellowship for the popular Vermont Studio Centre residency. His painting commission was used as illustration for the cover of the movel (movie-novel) titled, Mahsuri: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing, July 2016), written by Ooi Kok Chuen.