From early on in his career, Peter Liew paints in two bifurcating strands of Panaromic Landscapes and Architectural Heritage, first using the brushes and later the palette knife. Basically an alfresco painter, his process evolves and matured in concept, philosophy, style, colours, technique and treatment. For artists painting the landmark Moorish-design Penang Clock Tower or Victoria Memorial Tower at the junction of Light Street and Beach Street, it’s normal for them to take the whole totem standing by itself in resplendent glory. Peter Liew prefers to show its height towering over all the adjacent buildings in the financial hub of Penang, the only contender to it being the ghostly-white Komtar in the distant, near the left side of the painting. What can be seen of the 30-metre high structure built between 1987 and 1902, is the domed cupola with roman pillars, the second four-sided tier of the four working clocks, from her working station on the Beach Street front. But had Peter Liew painted the clock tower today, he might want to take it with its whole structure because of the addition of the fountain with the 4.8-metre high metal Betel Nut sculpture. Betel nut is Buah Pinang in Malay, and it is from here that Penang, Pulau Pinang, derived its name. But he has done one close-up in 1995, but by then he had started working on the mean palette knife. It was the same year he painted one at least on the Malacca Clock Tower. Peter Liew has been called the ‘Poet of the Panorama’ for his large natural landscapes in Asia, Europe, the United States and Oceania. He taught at the Malaysian Institute of Art from 1981-1994, after receiving his Diploma of Fine Art there in 1979 (He was awarded Best Student in 1978). He has come a long, long way since his first solo at Art House Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 1981, but he started making an impact in his solo at Galeri Seni Maybank in 1997.