Balinese paintings of the ubud school
Gallery 2 - Asian Arts
The painting depicts a grand royal or ceremonial forest scene, almost certainly drawn from Hindu epic literature — most likely the Mahabharata or Ramayana. Key visual elements include: • Decorated ceremonial parasols (tedung) — markers of royalty and spiritual rank • White horses — symbolizing purity and noble status • Bulls/cattle — possibly part of a ritual procession or sacrifice (Yadnya) • Warriors, priests, and attendants — arranged in a dense, hierarchical crowd • Elaborate headdresses and court dress on higher-status figures • A dense jungle canopy filling the entire background — characteristic of Balinese narrative painting • A white-robed elder/sage near center — likely a Brahmana priest or holy figure.
The painting depicts a grand royal or ceremonial forest scene, almost certainly drawn from Hindu epic literature — most likely the Mahabharata or Ramayana. Key visual elements include: • Decorated ceremonial parasols (tedung) — markers of royalty and spiritual rank • White horses — symbolizing purity and noble status • Bulls/cattle — possibly part of a ritual procession or sacrifice (Yadnya) • Warriors, priests, and attendants — arranged in a dense, hierarchical crowd • Elaborate headdresses and court dress on higher-status figures • A dense jungle canopy filling the entire background — characteristic of Balinese narrative painting • A white-robed elder/sage near center — likely a Brahmana priest or holy figure.
source of the Waikoloa Museum Walkway's pieces
Several of these paintings are attributed to I Wayan Seken, a documented Balinese artist born in Kutuh Kelod on 31 December 1963. A Bali Kandarupa catalogue lists him as active in exhibitions, with works shown at Mawang in 1995 and Museum Ratna Warta in 2015 and 2017. His signature appears on the paintings and his work developed during Ubud’s tourism/art-market expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, an indication that these paintings were acquired by resort developer Chris Hemmeter as commissioned works for the hotel or purchases on the Ubud market.
Style and technique
This is one of several paintings collected from the Island of Bali in Indonesia. Linked to a school of painters from the Ubud and Batuan districts, this style is characterized by elements such as:
• Horror vacui (a horror of emptiness) composition — every inch filled with figures, flora, and fauna
• Earthy, muted palette (ochres, grays, greens) with selective gold/teal accents — classic Batuan influence
• Flat perspective with figures stacked vertically to suggest depth
• Extraordinary detail — animals, birds, and foliage woven throughout
• Narrative storytelling — this is almost certainly one scene from a longer story cycle
These painters typically created scenes from Balinese mythology and legend, and the combination here of a sage figure, royal parasols, cattle, and warriors in a forest strongly suggests a scene such as:
• The Pandavas in exile (Mahabharata)
• A royal hunting party (Mrgaya)
• Or a forest hermitage visit by a king to a holy man
A royal journey or hunting party resting in the forest, probably meeting a holy man.
This narrative scene drawn is from legend rather than a temple ceremony, though Balinese art rarely separates the two. Here, a noble retinue is moving through a forest. The ceremonial parasols (tedung) mark royalty or high rank. So do the tall banners and the crowned figures with ornate headdresses. The saddled horses, spears, shields, and archers with quivers all suggest people traveling or hunting, not worshipping. The mood is restful and informal. Many figures sit, chat, drink from jugs or tip vessels back, and lounge. Gongs and a large water gourd lie on the ground make it appear that this is the moment a procession has stopped. The white-haired, bearded man in white with his hand on his chest reads as a pedanda (priest) or a resi (forest hermit). The crowd turns toward him, so the scene is likely an encounter. A king's party meeting a sage in a hermitage is a very common episode in Balinese epics. One example is King Dushyanta stumbling on the sage Kanwa's hermitage while hunting, the start of the Sakuntala story. Arjuna's forest episodes and the Panji romances also include scenes like this.
This narrative scene drawn is from legend rather than a temple ceremony, though Balinese art rarely separates the two. Here, a noble retinue is moving through a forest. The ceremonial parasols (tedung) mark royalty or high rank. So do the tall banners and the crowned figures with ornate headdresses. The saddled horses, spears, shields, and archers with quivers all suggest people traveling or hunting, not worshipping. The mood is restful and informal. Many figures sit, chat, drink from jugs or tip vessels back, and lounge. Gongs and a large water gourd lie on the ground make it appear that this is the moment a procession has stopped. The white-haired, bearded man in white with his hand on his chest reads as a pedanda (priest) or a resi (forest hermit). The crowd turns toward him, so the scene is likely an encounter. A king's party meeting a sage in a hermitage is a very common episode in Balinese epics. One example is King Dushyanta stumbling on the sage Kanwa's hermitage while hunting, the start of the Sakuntala story. Arjuna's forest episodes and the Panji romances also include scenes like this.
A Scene of Village Life in Bali
This painting, also from Bali, has a more European style, a one-point perspective, drawing the viewer's eye toward Bali's sacred mountain, Gunung Agung, in the background. Here, a woman is carrying bananas, possibly as an offering for the ceremony that is about to take place behind her. Around her, the life of the village goes on.
