Kampung Biya Sapit Sunrise #1

I climbed before dawn to a ridge above Kampung Biya Sapit in Sarawak, and by the time the sun cracked the horizon the whole valley below me had filled with a soft, slow-moving ocean of cloud. The mountains held their shoulders above it, deep blue silhouettes in the half-light, while peach and apricot bled across the sky and a few wisps of lavender stayed behind from the night. Working with oils, I built the sky up in long, calm horizontal strokes and let the cloud-sea below take its time — soft volumes, half-shapes, a small bamboo stem in the foreground to remind me of where I was actually standing.

There's something profoundly homecoming about painting Sarawak's highlands. The light there has a particular kindness to it, an unhurried quality, as if the morning is happy to wait while you take it in. I hope this painting lets a little of that quiet reach you.

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Min Leong is a painter born in Kuching, Malaysia and based in Sydney. His work centres on landscape from Malaysian forests to Australian coastlines. His paintings demonstrate a confident, expressive approach to colour — often pushing beyond naturalistic palettes into saturated purples, pinks, and oranges that capture the intense light of the Australian environment.

Leong gravitates toward subjects that emphasise the vertical and the immersive: towering eucalypts seen from below, dense rainforest canopies, and expansive vistas from elevated viewpoints. His work conveys a direct engagement with place and an interest in how light transforms the familiar into something vivid and heightened.