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LITERATURE
Chang Fee Ming: Swanhili Coast postcard book, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, 2005, illustrated on front cover.

A solitary woman paces the beach deserted but for a snuggle of small fishing dhows at rest. She is completely clothed to protect herself from the chill of the Indian Ocean breeze off the Tanzanian coast. With her eyes downcast, she is probably rapt in thought about something or looking for something on the beach. The splash of vibrant Swahili colours can be seen in her cloth bandana and khanga shawl. This work is from Chang Fee Ming’s Swahili Coast series of sketches and watercolours, which were shown at the Suntec Singapore and later Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur in 2005. It was featured on the cover of an accompanying set of postcards. Inspired by his travels to East Africa in late 2004, the work was painted in Dar-es-Salaam, which was Tanzania’s capital until it switched to Dodoma in 1973.

Ranked among the finest of Asia’s watercolour artists, Fee Ming was born in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia in 1959. Since winning the Malaysian Watercolour Society Award in 1984, he has gone on to gain many accolades both locally and internationally such as the “Rockport Publisher’s Award of Distinction” (USA), and became a Signature Member of the National Watercolour Society (USA) in 1994. For over twenty years his subject has been the people of Malaysian, Southeast Asia and Asia. He has exhibited and collected widely around the world. The artist is based in Kuala Terengganu, spending part of the year in Bali and much of the rest travelling through Asia.