Racks for Drying and Storing my Oil Paintings

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Oil paintings take time to dry, perhaps three to six months to get them very dry. This means by then they don't get tacky when leaning against each other. In the meantime, they have to be kept separate from touching each other. This means suitable racks.

I have been building up my racks for drying and storing these stretched canvas paintings. The individual items of the racks are bought from Ikea, the furniture chain store. You can see them in the picture below. There are nylon fishing lines stretching tight between the paintings to keep them separate.

Give Us Clean Water

This is the photo (not too well taken) of my oil painting showing three composite scenes. On bottom left, a child is shown scooping dirty water from a stagnant pond for drinking. On bottom, a child is shown using a cheap but non-permanent solution to dirty water, sucking water through a special filter. At top centre is shown a long-term, but more expensive solution. It is a properly constructed deep well. It is cement lined with a rim around the well to avoid dirty water going back down the well shaft. Size of oil painting 30 x 36 in.

"The failure to provide safe drinking water and adeaquate sanitation services to all people is perhaps the greatest development failure of the 20th century. The worst consequence of this failure is the high rate of motality among young children from preventable water-related diseases."

Child Soldier

This picture shows my oil painting showing a sad looking young girl soldier holding a gun that can kill. Size 30 x 30 in. Click image to enlarge.

It is a regrettable fact that throughout history and in many parts of the world, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were against cultural morals. Some of these children are orphans, while some are captured and kidnapped. They are then easily trained and forced to kill.

Our Upside Down World

This complex painting needs a bit of explanation. Ideally, to see the eight sectors of this round composite painting well on the computer, you'd need to rotate your r screen. It is not planned to be hung up vertically on the wall like other paintings. Instead, it is planned to look like a round ceiling painting. The viewer stands underneath at the centre looking up facing outwards while rotating.

In reality, the oil painting is to be hung facing down underneath the ceiling. It is built up of four square stretched canvas paintings joined together. The total size is 6 x 6 ft.

In terms of content, the painting is built up from four pairs of paintings of scenes that are viewed from above. Each painting pair shows two contrasting scenes, or scenes before and after disasters. Together, they serve to illustrate how upside down the world can be, arising from recent events.

On the top left of the photo above, the painting pair shows our world's rich poor divide. One of them shows the glittering night scene of the gambling/entertainmemt city Las Vegas. The other shows the tents at a crowded refugee camp where people including women and children are living in subsistence conditions.

The painting pair on top right shows people and their crops in poor countries are badly affected by bad climate conditions, either severe drought or deadly flooding.

The painting pair on botom right shows a over-crowded over-loaded ferry boat with a few hundred on board before and after it was overturned by stormy seas drowning many on board.

On bottom left, the painting pair shows the New York World Trade Centre Twin Towers before and after they were attacked causing the two tall buildings to burn and collapse completely. A few thousand people died from this horrid event.

Modern History - #16, #17

These are the last two in my series of oil paints depicting significant events or people in the modern world.

On the left, painting #16 symbolically depicts the final tsunami or global financial crisis sweeping across the world starting from the New York Wall Street since September 2008.

Painting #17 on the right depicts the tough efforts by political and financial leaders in many countries trying to save the world from being drown in a sea of recession since September 2008. Economic recoveries are still not certain at the US, Japan and Europe.

These six panels of 17 paintings can form another mini-series. Like the earlier mini-series, this can also be displayed at a semi-formal show.

Modern History - #7, #8, #9

Continuing on my series of oil paintings on significant events or people in modern history.

From the left, painting #7 shows China's Mao Zedong at Beijing in 1949 declaring the birth of the People Republic of China.

Painting #8 at the centre shows the contrasting figures of Earl Mountbatten representing the British crown and Mahatma Gandhi of India at their final talk in London on the forthcoming independence of India in 1947.

On the right, painting #9 shows a scene at the 1975 'Fall of Saigon'. This was the traumatic attempt of many S Vietnam elite to leave Saigon boarding an US helicopter on top of an US embassy building. It depicts the end of the long bloody US Vietnam War.

Modern History - #4, #5, #6

Continuing on my series of oil paintings on significant events or people in modern history.

From the left, painting #4 shows the second US atomic bombing of Japan, this one at Nagasaki. This resulted in Japan's surrender. At that time Italy and German had already surrendered. This event depicts the final end in 1945 of the 2nd World War.

Painting #5 at the centre shows Winston Churchill of the UK, Franklin Roosevelt of the US and Joseph Stalin of the USSR at their meeting at Yalta, Crimea, near but before the very end of the 2nd World War. These three together carved out the spheres of influence and control of the post-war world. They did it without the agreement of affected countries and territories, nor the need to inform them. This painting also depicts the start of the post-war Cold War.

On the right, painting #6 shows the United Nations Headquarters building at New York city, depicting the 1945 birth of the world body.

Fifth Economic Era on Creative Human Talents

This is a very new economic era that has recently started. It is ongoing in only some parts of the world, like the US, some Europe countries, and is starting in Japan and some parts of many other countries, including Singapore.

The change is due very much to the powerful and extensive internet supported by other information and communication technologies. They cause a continual accelerating change to most human activities. As a result the most important driving force is the human talents with the knowledge, entreprenaurial abilities, and especially creative abilities.

The picture above shows my oil painting depicting this era, showing some of these creative human talents. Size 36 x 30 in. Click image to enlarge.

This and the previous four paintings on the Economic Eras had been displayed in my recent solo painting exhibition in Singapore. As this exhibition, which is a relatively large one is now over, these five paintings can be re-displayed as a mini-series, say in a less formal setting in one of the libraries of my old University.

First Economic Era on Hunting and Gathering

Ever since the prehistoric stone ages, human beings for survival relied on hunting of animals and fish, and gathering of plants and stones for protection, food and fire and to help with shelter and clothing. Hunting and gathering were thus their main activities.

To pursue these activities more effectively, human beings needed appropriate resources. The main resources they relied on for their hunting and gathering activities were tools like sharp stones, spears and bow and arrows .

When basic survival was sufficiently ensured, excess animals, fish and plants that they obtained were exchanged by bartering for a improved quality of life. These are the main economic activities.

For most parts of the world, this economic era was very slowly superceded by the second economic era.

This picture above is my oil painting to depict this era. Size 30 x 40 in. Click on the above image to enlarge.