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Maestro of Traditional Style Painting:
I Made Budi
text and photo by Ruslan Wiryadi

I Made Budi (about 78 years old) is an emerging artist among Balinese painters who paint in the traditional style. His simple life is reflected in his works. As in most Balinese paintings, themes of his paintings come from daily life, scenery of Bali and people. One thing which makes him different from other artist-painters is his bravery to portray objects that are not common in traditional style paintings. In the traditional style, people are depicted wearing Balinese clothes along with all accessories, whether they wear simple or more proper clothing. The men wear both sarong and udeng (the Balinese head-dress for men). Meanwhile the women wear sarong and shawl. Even for objects from the mythological world, the artists put Balinese ornaments and accessories.


Nevertheless, I Made Budi has expressed new ideas by including modern objects such as an aero plane, surf board, and people (a tourist) with a camera, the police or army wearing uniforms, and so on. When he did this the first time, some of his colleagues said that nobody will buy a traditional painting with modern objects, because it breaks the rules. It was very uncommon at that time (around the year 1975). However I Made Budi did not care about selling his paintings, even though his life really depended on his art since he had no other job. "To express and paint as I want is more important for me," he said.



His consistency in making such paintings especially brought him to the USA (in 1978 and 1988) and to Switzerland (in 1987) to exhibit his works. He also travelled to Hongkong and Bangkok, Thailand, and has portrayed those cities on canvas.

In 1986, the President of the USA, Ronald Reagan, visited Bali to meet Soeharto, the former president of Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian leaders. This visit inspired Budi to paint about the event. Later,
in 1987, Bradley Brockman, a curator from USA chose Budi's painting to give to President Reagan as a souvenir of his visit to Bali. Reagan gave a positive response. So one of Budi's paintings became part of the White House
collection.

I Made Budi will exhibit some of his works at Krisna Gallery from December 30 until January 10, 2012.

Krisna Gallery, Jl. Raya Mas, Ubud. Contact Person:
Wayan Susana