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This painting interestingly compliments the previous lot of Kow’s earlier study of a little girl titled Innocence 3, also compositioned in the same way with their heads turned towards the audience. Here, the Malay girl is depicted wearing a hijab, surrounded by lush kampung greeneries.This painting was executed towards the end of Kow Leong Kiang’s sketching trips to Kelantan and Terengganu in 2003, which is when he observed a perceptible change in the dressing of the female rural folk.

Graduated from Kuala Lumpur College of Art in 1991, Kow received Minor Award, Young Contemporaries Malaysia in 1992, National Award, National Day Art Competition, Kuala Lumpur and won the Grand Prize at the Phillip Morris ASEAN Art Awards in 1998 with his controversial painting titled Mr. Foreign Speculator, Stop Damaging Our Country. He was also artist-in-residence at Vermon Studio Centre, U.S.A. in 2004. Kow is best known for his masterful portraits of East Coast beauties, capturing the images of rural beauty.