That would be an apt description of self-taught Sabahan artist Awang Fadilah Ali Hussein, except that his paintings definitely go beyond the definition of simple and unsophisticated.
Awang Fadilah has created an “uncountable” number of paintings – many focusing on Sabah’s culture and natural heritage – over more than 26 years.
An example is his work “The Dancer”, which depicts a woman in Kadazandusun costume performing the Sumazau dance as two male figures in traditional garb play the gambus or lute and sompoton, a wind instrument, surrounded by a myriad of plants.
At first glance, the painting appears cartoonish with a lavish use of vibrant colours in acrylic and art marker pen. A closer inspection though would show the amount of detail that has gone into it.
As Awang Fadilah puts it, the underlying message of “The Dancer” is that Sabah’s culture and its environment is vibrantly colourful.
For him, naive art is the most effective way of reaching out to his audience to share with them his thoughts.
Art was Awang Fadillah’s favourite subject in school. “At first I dabbled in various art forms such as realism and abstract but I realised these weren’t for me. Then I began focusing on the naive art form and I realised that children and adults alike could relate to my work,” he told FMT.
The reasons for his focus on Sabah’s diverse cultural and natural heritage: He wants to showcase the state’s wealth and also to stand out from other naive artists worldwide.
“I have so much in my backyard as my subjects and I can go on and on. In any case, anyone can paint an elephant but the ones I paint are different,” he said.
And his works have won notice: His illustrations now hang at the Sabah Art Gallery here and at the Sabah Government Administrative Complex, while his drawings have been exhibited in Slovakia, South Korea and at Japan’s National Diet and International Library of Children’s Literature in Tokyo.
Unknown to him, his illustrations have also been exhibited at a Russian gallery.
“The only way I came to know about this was when a Russian lady came to see me and said she did all she could to track me down all the way to KK after seeing my work in a gallery in her country,” said Awang Fadilah.
His Sabah cultural and natural heritage illustrations have indeed found an audience among tourists in Sabah after his works were put on display in places like the weekly Gaya Street Fair here.
But some of his work has also been based on events that he felt strongly about.
Soon after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in March 2014, he felt compelled to do a series of illustrations featuring a MAS aircraft with smiling passengers waving at the windows.
(The Boeing 777 aircraft with 239 passengers and crew disappeared while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite a massive search effort, it has never been found although some debris has been recovered from the Indian Ocean.)
“All these had the same title – Journey back to Kuala Lumpur. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part.”
Confined to a wheelchair for nearly 10 years by a brittle bone condition, Awang Fadilah said his disability has not slowed him down in terms of his creativity.
However, like many others, the Covid-19 pandemic has been tough on him in many ways, most notably financially.
A small stall that serves as his own gallery has been closed for nearly a year since the movement control order last March.
“People have less disposable income to buy artwork and the international travel restrictions means there are no tourists around. It’s been hard, but we go on with the hope that things will get better,” he said.