This exquisite batik from Dato’ Chuah Thean Teng shows two buffaloes sitting side by side whilst accompanied by a small bird. The ambiance is complemented with a yellow background that gives a warm sensation for the eyes. The scene suggests good weather as it is sunny and bright. His subject matter often revolves around the rural community and nature, which are themes that are closely related to his life. Teng, as the artist is more popularly known, is widely recognised as the ‘Father of Batik Painting’. “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,” Professor Sullivan once said. Teng developed the traditional craft into a fine-art construct in 1953 and unveiled the innovations to great fanfare in his first solo at the Arts Council Penang in 1955. He held another solo of his batik art in London in 1959. The images of his works, Two Of A Kind, and Tell You A Secret, were chosen for UNICEF’s greeting cards in 1968 and 1988. Teng was accorded a Retrospective in 1965 and a Tribute in 2009 by the National Art Gallery Malaysia, and was invited to showcase among the Commonwealth’s greatest artists in an exhibition in London to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. The Penang State Government awarded him the Dato’ title in 1998 and named him a Living Heritage in 2005.