Tina (seated, left) at the launch of her memoir.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s renowned 98-year-old artist, Tina Rimmer, recently launched her memoir — ‘A Life on Two Islands’ — at a private function here attended by 13 close friends.
Guests present at the auspicious occasion included Professor Dr Danny Wong of University of Malaya, Jennifer Linggi, curator of Sabah Art Gallery, Patricia and Beatrice Kupicha, Tina’s two nieces who flew in from Dublin to meet her after 50 years, and publisher Datuk C.L. Chan and Datin Connie Chan.
The memoir tells the story of Tina’s life in the United Kingdom and British North Borneo where she arrived in 1949 as the Colony’s first female education officer.
‘A Life on Two Islands’, which was co-edited by the late Frances Kupicha, Beatrice Kupicha and Danny Wong, is published by Opus Publications.
Tina Lewin married Bert Rimmer in 1959 and subsequently lived in Lahad Datu where she became a teacher at Siew Ching Primary School and St Dominic’s School. Her first portrait was of John, a young Chinese who worked at the Jesselton Government Rest House located behind the Atkinson Clock Tower.
Later she befriended Lucille Plunkett, a police officer’s wife who was also an artist, and they decided to form a group to develop their style. Together, they staged the first art exhibition to be held in the state, at Likas All Saints School in 1951.
Tina notched up another ‘first’ by being the first artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Sabah Art Gallery when it opened in 1984. To date she has produced more than 900 paintings, excluding sketches done as early as 1949. Most of Tina’s drawings are of people.
“I would often go to the Tamparuli Tamu that’s held every Wednesday. I would draw one or two sketches each time,” she recalled.
In 1999 The Sabah Society published a selection of Tina’s paintings as a pictorial book entitled ‘The Tamparuli Tamu: A Sabah Market’.
Tina has also made sketches for over 500 patients at the Palliative Care Centre in Kota Kinabalu over many years, according to Datin Dr Molly Mathew who was also present at the auspicious launch.
A new book of Tina’s paintings and sketches is to be published next year, according to Chan.
“I would like to include as many of Tina’s works in colour in the book as possible and would be pleased if collectors of Tina’s work contact me,” according to Chan.
Rimmer’s new memoir, ‘A Life on Two Islands’, is currently on sale at The Borneo Shop in Wisma Merdeka and The Museum Shop at Sabah Museum.