Inspired by wildlife and birds

Ting drawing Gentoo penguins during her first visit to Bluff Cove lagoon, Falkland islands in 2018.

KOTA KINABALU: From early on, Wong Yee Ting was gifted athletically, representing Sabah and the country as a national sprinter in her teens.

She was acknowledged as the fastest woman in Borneo when she was 15, with her highest achievement representing Malaysia twice – in the Asean School in 1986 and the Asian Junior Track and Field in 1987 for the 4x100 relay category.

However, as she grew older, the Kota Kinabalu-born lass started to tap into her artistic side.

Today, Ting, as she is professionally known in the artistic world, has traded laps around the track to sea voyages, hiking and jungle treks around the world to catch wildlife in action and immortalise them in her paintings.

The 53-year-old has visited Danum Valley in Sabah’s east coast to paint orang utan and other Borneo wildlife, hiked the Amazon jungle at 2am to see the enigmatic night Curacao, watched green and white hummingbirds in Machu Picchu, watched a polar bear and her two cubs on a cliff near a glacier in the Arctic, and most recently paid her fourth visit to the Falklands at the King and Gentoo penguin colonies, which she has become very fond of during her past Antarctica trip to watch orcas and humpback whales.

“I love to observe animals in their natural habitat. They display different behaviours than those in sanctuaries or in captivity.

“They also have their own culture. For instance, orang utan of different regions develop different cultures in nest building.

“I feel privileged to be from Borneo, the third largest island in the world with abundant nature and wildlife. I feel proud to show our fascinating and enchanting animals to the world.

“At the same time I am also in awe with what the rest of the world offers,” Ting told The Star.

Since a very young age, Ting has always enjoyed doodling in her story books and school text books, doing graffiti on the wall or furniture with pencils, crayons and ball pens, she said.

Ting studied graphic and illustrative art and was an art tutor for adults and school students since 1993, but it was only 15 years ago that she realised she wanted to become a full-time artist.

“At the time, besides art classes from my home studio, I made illustrations for advertising firms, Taiwan publishing houses and landed private commissions. Between 2005 and 2008, I was a gallery owner in Kota Kinabalu (Art Base Gallery) and provide art for private and corporate clients.

“It was a lot of work all at the same time.

“So one day it just became like ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’, and I had the clarity to become a full-time painter artist – this is how I want to live the rest of my life,” she said in reference to the award-winning film.

Asked about her favourite subject to paint, she quipped, “To be honest I don’t know what is my favourite subject. I enjoyed all of them! To me they are all under one category – creatures.”

However, looking at her portfolio, it is clear that she has a lot of pieces on birds.

“I painted my first bird commission Pitta Paradise in 2012 for Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley.

“It was a dream come true to paint birds like those we marvelled at in natural history books, though I paint in an expressive rather than the scientifically accurate style.

“I spent time birding and nature trekking during my travels, and I am learning to become a birder. I also took part in the largest wildlife event in UK Birdfair five times,” she said when asked if her hobbies include birdwatching.

Ting added that penguins “came into her life” in the Singapore Zoo, but the Gentoo and King penguin colonies that she encountered when she first visited Bluff Cove Lagoon on Falkland Islands had impressed her immensely.

“The chicks and their parents thrive on the windswept land. I was in awe to see them up close, never disturbed by my presence as I sat and sketched them.

“There were so much going on, I took tons of photos and videos to capture their activities.

“Through natural history documentaries, books and talks, I learned about their behaviour, one of which I portrayed (in my art) was the feeding chase, where the hungrier chick that was persistent got the feed from the parent,” she said.

Presently besides Malaysian buyers, Ting’s artworks have been bought by art enthusiasts and businesses from Germany, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France and New Zealand, to name a few.

“My customers are 50/50 local and overseas, with a mix of nature lovers and professionals.

“They knew of my work from social media, word of mouth, during my travels or from exhibitions,” she said adding that she has a strong following in Denmark where she travelled to a lot.

For the last three years, Ting said she had been creating a new series of paintings to showcase the Borneo island province where she was born, including the Sunbirds in Tropical Garden, which she painted during the pandemic from watching birds in her garden at her home.

Ting has also gone beyond paintings and has offered her art in the form of printed cushion covers and canvas bags.

“I have always thought about the word ‘applied art’ and my own definition is that it is something we could enjoy looking at and has function,” she added.

Ting’s latest endeavour is her solo exhibition Enchanted Garden launched on April 2, where over 50 pieces of her artworks are showcased at Art Attic, located in downtown Kota Kinabalu, until April 30.

This includes her cushion covers and her latest art venture – wall clock art she named Hare O’Clock’.

“The exhibition is my artistic journey of how I was inspired by the beauty of nature. It is a selection of my artworks from the past three years as well as new ones.”

Ting previously had her first solo exhibition in 2014 at Sabah Art Gallery – themed Walking on Air, on the thrills and gratitude of becoming an artist and showcasing various subjects, from nature, Borneo dancers and musicians as well as wildlife.

She said she plans to continue adding new artworks to her series while continuing art workshops like the one she did during the cruise to the Arctic in July last year.

“I will continue with a new range of cushion covers and canvas bags, while still taking artwork commissions and exclusive custom orders.

“All of this gives me more opportunities to create from nature, birds and the animals I love,” said Ting.