When Kuan Ruo Han came into our first sight, we smelled some graceful tastes from her. Despite her small build, through her speech it was not hard to see that this 12-year-old girl adheres to her mind and views.

We believe this distinguished feature has been the important factor for her to draw and paint to her heart's desires.

When she was three, under the influences from her father, she began to hold the colour pencil by doing some freehand sketches on drawing paper, and she was finally able to draw her dream giraffe. She was always at her father's side when he was conducting his drawing classes.

Instead of guiding her deliberately, her father Kuan Jin Qiang, 40, was observing her moves at that time, and had allowed her to exploit her own imagination when in a bid to maximise her potentials in arts.

Showing talents in art and creativity at 5

When she was only five, her painting "Frogs" which displayed her talents in art and creativity was first exposed to the public in "Children's Art Exhibition."

At the age of seven, she drew a vivid painting to protrude a mother's love through her incisive observations on a breast-feeding mother dog.

Kuan was truly aware of the truth of making unremitting efforts to upgrade oneself, and has been improving her drawing skills at home under the guidance of her father who serves as her teacher. She started her drawing lessons in Standard One and began to take part in a drawing contest the following year. In addition, she has also been learning traditional Chinese painting from a local artist, Qiu De Qin since 2006.

Falling in love with calligraphy

Besides, she has also fallen in love with Chinese calligraphy under the guidance of one of his father's friends Chen Pei Ren, a calligraphy enthusiast.

She had the sudden idea of having a personal art exhibition at the age of 10. Her father was shocked and felt unbelievable to her sudden decision.

Nevertheless, Kuan Jin Qiang was determined to lend full support to her daughter both morally and in action. About half a year ago, he started looking for an appropriate venue and making the necessary arrangements with the hope of fulfilling his daughter's dream.

He told Sin Chew Daily, Ruo Han had shown a great passion for painting ever since she was very young. Her younger sister Ruo Qin, 9, and younger brother Wen Xu, 7, seem to be influenced by their eldest sister, and were just as crazy about calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting respectively.

Kuan Jin Qiang is an art teacher at Zhong Hua High School, Muar. He never forces his children to follow his footstep to pick up painting, but allows them to bring their talents into full play without any restraint.

He told us Ruo Han hoped to have an art exhibition together with her father, brother and sister in the future. This, nevertheless, needs to take time as her brother and sister are still very young and their works have yet to meet the required standards.

Confidence in UPSR

She said she considered this solo exhibition a form of recognition for her creative works since she was three. Some 150 of her paintings will be put on display during the upcoming exhibition that truly registers her growing process. For her, this is going to be the most important stage of all.

She added that she had so far accumulated more than 70 personal paintings, and had forced herself to submit at least one painting each day starting this year.

Although she will be sitting for UPSR this year, she has never felt stressful because of the additional burden of hosting her own exhibition.

She believed painting could help relieve her pressure, and if she engaged in calligraphy with a cheerful mind, she would effortlessly hand out a satisfying work.

Ruo Han will be displaying more than 20 calligraphic works and almost 130 paintings, including watercolour paintings, traditional Chinese paintings and crayon works. The main subjects of her works include realistic paintings of day-to-day life, still-life paintings, scenery, etc.

She generally chooses to complete her works in the yard of her house at night when she can pay full attention to painting without distractions.

This young talented artist hopes she would share the exciting moments of artistic creation with her father and family. (Translated by LIM LIY EE/Sin Chew Daily)