Tina rimmer, the last colonial painter or the new Sanahan painter

• Main Author: Goh, Rosalind Sy Lind
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: N1-58 General
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/39412/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/39412/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/39412/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sabah

This research seeks to determine if Tina Rimmer is the ‘Last Colonial Painter’ or the ‘New Sabahan Painter’. This is a biographical research and uses a historical approach to acquire the data and information for the analysis of this research. The research findings are obtained by analyzing her ideologies, characteristics and styles within her artworks as well as comparing them with other artworks created in both the colonial eras of British North Borneo and post-colonial eras of current-day Sabah. Also known as Mary Christina Rimmer née Lewin, she is currently the oldest and longest serving member of the Sabahan Visual Art Society (also known as PSVS or Persatuan Seni Visual Sabah) and the Sabah Society. Currently at the age of 98 she has spent more than half of her lifetime in Sabah first as an education officer and after her retirement which took place right after getting married to Albert Rimmer, was offered Malaysian citizenship in Lahad Datu during Mustapha’s time. After moving in to Tamparuli, it encouraged her to draw more as the subject matters in the local tamu (s) interests her. Originally a British but has decided to permanently reside in Sabah, draws inspiration from the early colonial Sabahan lifestyle to produce paintings and sketches that made her a leading figure in the history of Sabah art. Besides finding the right classification for her and her artwork, readers need to appreciate her artwork through her unique perspective of Sabahan native lives, cultures, and traditions which will be further explained in tandem with samples of her artwork. It is hoped that there will be greater appreciation and understanding of her aesthetics and style in connection to Sabah art history where Tina Rimmer is concerned. Her tremendous contribution to Sabah art will be the highlight of this paper especially where her subjects, style and perspective in relation to her philosophy that “Art is Life” is concerned.