My inspiration for this piece of work was the painting ‘Forest Fire’ by Raden Saleh made in 1849.

Raden Saleh (1807 or 1811–1880) is regarded as one of the most important 19th century artists from Java. Hailed as the "father of modern Indonesian painting", he is known for his Orientalist landscape and animal hunt paintings that are full of energy and emotion. He was born in Semarang to an aristocratic Javanese family and grew up in a very privileged household. Later, he would move to Europe, where he continued to perfect his art and where he attracted patronage from the European elite.

Forest Fire is an immense composition showing animals chased by flames to the edge of a precipice. This relentless and tragic tale of life and death is powerfully narrated through the vivid depiction of the animals and the dramatic use of light and dark on a monumental scale. Painted during the last years of Raden Saleh's long sojourn in Europe, and the largest known example of the artist's oeuvre, the work manifests his technical mastery of the oil medium, realism, and the language of European Romanticism. The painting was gifted by Raden Saleh to King Willem III of the Netherlands in 1850. A year later, in 1851, the king bestowed the title of "Schilder des Konings" ("King’s Painter") upon him.

I chose this painting because I found it interesting and detailed, it made me think about how the animals are feeling. My artwork is about this piece of work I used the number two because there are two main forests in Singapore. There are spurts of red or orange, symboling fire. The number nine, because the latest forest fire in Singapore was in 2019. The background is mostly green, just like a forest.