My inspiration for this piece of work was the painting ‘War and Peace’ by Hendra Gunawan, 1950. Gunawan was an Indonesian artist. He was best known for his western painting techniques and traditional Indonesian aesthetic. This piece links back to his past as a revolutionary fighter during the 1940s and his involvement in the Indonesian communist Party’s cultural organisation. As well as this he also co-founded the Peoples Painters who believed art should be inspired and understood by all. Following this Gunawan was jailed for his involvement with the communist party even though his involvement may not have been political. 

For my interpretation of this painting, I chose the numbers 3 and 45k, as well the star from the Maltese flag. The number 3 is significant to me as my Great Grandpa was an aeroplane mechanic in World War 2 and he was awarded 3 medals during his time in the RAF: The African Star, the WW2 medal and the Battle of Britain Medal. I chose 45k because there were 45 thousand British soldiers fighting in Indonesia during the Indonesian War of Independence from 1945-1949, the next year War and Peace was painted. I incorporated the star from the Malta flag in my piece as it represents an  important link to me as my Great Grandpa was stationed in Malta during the war. A significant event that happened during his journey there was that his ship got torpedoed just off the coast of Spain. He was one of the lucky crew to survive and be rescued, finally arriving in Malta on the 11th of April 1941. I used the block shapes to show the route of his journey and the star to depict his final destination. The colour scheme I used was inspired by war and peace, as the greens and blues symbolise the peace and harmony and contrast with the reds and oranges which I have chosen to represent the war and violence.