Unity, Sam Karuna.
(Photo credit: Fine Art America)
On the afternoon of 6 May 2026, I met Sam Karuna with a few questions in mind and a quiet curiosity about the man behind the paintings.
The interview was initially meant to be simple. I was there to gather information for Soul to Soul, his exhibition at Capital Auction, to understand the works, the ideas behind them, and the story he wanted to tell through the exhibition.
But as the conversation unfolded, something shifted.
Between stories of his past, memories of places he had been, and reflections on what it means to keep making art, I found myself listening less as an interviewer and more as someone trying to understand the person behind the work. His answers seemed to open doors to a journey much larger than the exhibition itself.
Before Soul to Soul became an exhibition, there was a life behind it. A life shaped by persistence, uncertainty, disappointment, and an enduring need to create.
So perhaps the better place to begin is not with the paintings, but with the man who made them.
Who Is Sam Karuna, Really?
Sam Karuna may not be a name familiar to everyone, but his story holds a significant place in the development of Malaysian art. An artist and educator at the Sam Karuna Fine Art Batik Centre, he is widely known as the “Father of Modern Batik of Malaysia.”
But there is more to Karuna than the title.
He is also the artist behind Dyetik, a technique developed through years of experimentation that pushed batik beyond its traditional boundaries and towards the realm of fine art.
Sam Karuna in his studio.
(Photo credit: Sam Karuna)
It All Started With Watercolour
Here is something you might not expect. Sam Karuna did not begin with batik.
His early artistic practice centred on watercolour, particularly through his
Kampung Series, where he painted landscapes and rural surroundings.
At the time, Penang was home to a sizable Australian community, including members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Karuna found an audience among them through his landscape paintings, capturing the local environment that surrounded them.
His watercolours eventually gained recognition within the community.
Then, in 1972, Karuna held his first solo exhibition at the RAAF Centre in Penang. Interestingly, this exhibition marked another shift in his practice. Instead of watercolour, he presented works in oil painting.
Batik, however, was still nowhere in sight.
And that is where the story gets interesting.
A Love Affair With Batik Begins
Did you know that Sam Karuna in the early stage does not know anything about batik?
Yes, you heard that right. Sam Karuna did not even know how to produce batik in the early stages of his career.
His artistic journey began elsewhere, primarily with watercolour and landscape painting. Batik only entered his world later, after he encountered the works of artists such as Datuk Chua Teng Teng, Tay Moi Leong, and Toya Lim.
Something about the medium caught his attention.
He fell in love with batik, but there was one problem: he did not know how to make it.
A Secretive Medium
At the time, learning an artistic technique was not as easy as it is today. There were no YouTube tutorials, online courses, or endless sources of information to learn from.
Artists often kept their techniques to themselves.
The knowledge of how to prepare the materials, apply the wax, control the dyes, and achieve certain effects was closely guarded. For someone like Karuna, who was fascinated by batik but had no practical knowledge of the process, this meant that the only way forward was to observe, experiment, and figure it out for himself.
And perhaps, this difficulty was exactly what made the journey more meaningful.
Karuna was not simply adopting batik as a new medium. He was learning how to speak a language that he had never spoken before.
And Then, A Door Opened
Perhaps that is one of the little magic moments in life. When we are genuinely passionate about learning something, somehow, the way begins to reveal itself.
Just when Sam Karuna was searching for a way to learn batik, an unexpected opportunity came.
A Malay staff member from the Penang Museum and Art Gallery approached him and suggested that he visit a batik practitioner in Perak. There, Karuna could learn the basic techniques of making batik.
It may have seemed like a small encounter at the time, but for Karuna, it opened a door.
He finally had a starting point.
Sam Karuna presenting his work at his studio. Photo credit: Hafiz Aiman
But Then, There Was a Problem
But things did not always go smoothly.
After learning the basic process of making batik from the practitioner in Perak, Karuna returned with a new understanding of the medium. He knew how to work with the wax and the fabric, and he had finally taken his first steps into batik.
But one crucial thing was missing.
The practitioner had forgotten to teach him how to prevent the colours from becoming muddy when applied to the fabric.
It was a small detail, perhaps, but an important one.
Without understanding how the colours should be prepared and controlled, Karuna quickly realised that knowing how to make batik was not the same as knowing how to make it well.
And once again, he had to figure it out for himself.
He began searching for an answer, trying one experiment after another. Different colours, different methods, different approaches. But nothing seemed to work.
The colours continued to turn muddy.
Instead of giving up, he decided to go back to where the process could be observed firsthand. Karuna visited a batik factory in Penang, determined to
understand what he had been missing.He watched the process carefully, studied how the colours were handled, and began to understand the relationship between the dyes, the fabric, and the application process.
Eventually, something clicked.
After countless experiments and failed attempts, he finally found a way to make the colours work.
What began as a frustrating failure became another important lesson in his journey with batik, which is that sometimes, the knowledge we need is not given to us. We have to go looking for it.
Carrying Batik Into Unfamiliar Ground
After learning and mastering batik, Karuna was invited by an Australian family to hold an exhibition in Australia.
For him, batik was more than just a medium.
Batik was a national art form.
It represented something deeply connected to Malaysia and its artistic identity. So when the opportunity came to exhibit in Australia, he chose to present batik as the main medium of his work.
Over a two year period, Karuna produced 45 artworks for his exhibitions in Australia. He eventually held nine solo exhibitions across the country, achieving major commercial success along the way.
The journey that began with learning the basics of batik had now taken him much further than he imagined.
The Pain of Being Unseen
Once again, life is not a bed of roses.
At that time, batik was still largely seen as a craft rather than fine art in Australia. “It is a craft,” was what some people there told him.
The criticism affected Karuna personally. Frustrated, he returned to his hometown carrying the disappointment with him.
But perhaps what makes an artist an artist is the refusal to give up.
Karuna continued producing oil paintings, focusing on landscapes and farm life, while secretly experimenting with batik. He kept searching for ways to push the medium further and prove that batik could stand on its own as fine art.
Then, in 1983, he returned to Australia for another exhibition in Geelong. Interestingly, he brought back the same body of work he had shown years earlier.
This time, however, he was returning with something to prove.
Finding His Voice in Batik
After breaking free from the conventional boundaries of batik, Sam Karuna developed a new technique that would eventually earn him the title of the ‘Father of Modern Batik Malaysia’.
But Dyetik was more than just a technique.
It became a way for Sam to find his own voice. Through the process, batik was no longer simply a medium or a traditional craft to be preserved. It became an extension of himself, shaped by his own gestures, instincts and way of seeing.
One of Sam Karuna Artworks.
(Photo credit: Wariscan)
In Dyetik, Sam was not simply changing the way batik was made. He was changing what batik could become.
Dyetik itself bears a striking resemblance to Pointillism, a technique famously developed by Georges Seurat in the late 19th century. Yet, nearly a century later, Sam Karuna arrived at Dyetik independently in the 1980s, discovering through batik a distinct visual language of his own.
When the Hands Begin to Tremble
In 2018, Sam Karuna received the devastating news that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Yet, even as his body began to change, his concern remained with batik. What once occupied much of his time was gradually reduced to only three hours a day.
Rather than stopping his art practice because of his condition, he began studying Parkinson’s itself, looking at how it affected movement and rhythm, and how he could translate these changes into his practice.
His workspace does not only serve as a place for artistic conversations and ideas, but has also become a space where he processes his illness, emotions, and thoughts with honesty.
I asked him a question that had been lingering in my mind: had Parkinson’s taken away his connection with making art?
He said yes. Parkinson’s had taken away his ability to “speak” with dyetik in the way he once did.
But for Sam, this was not a reason to stop. He had to adapt, because to adapt to change is, in his words, part of what it means to be human.
A Conversation Between Souls
Yet perhaps the most meaningful part of Sam Karuna’s journey is not what Parkinson’s has taken away from him, but what he continues to give.
This becomes visible in Soul to Soul, where Sam’s journey meets Audrey Lim’s. The exhibition reflects a quiet passing of knowledge, experience and artistic understanding from one artist to another.
Opening Soul to Soul Exhibition on Capital Auction.
(Photo credit: Hafiz Aiman)
For Sam, it is not simply about teaching batik. It is about passing on a way of seeing, thinking and making. Audrey receives this knowledge and carries it into her own practice, giving it a new life.
In this sense, Soul to Soul is not about an ending. It is about what continues.
What Cannot Be Taken Away
Sam Karuna’s journey reminds us that being an artist is not only about the ability to create. But also about learning how to continue when circumstances change. His experience with Parkinson’s shows that limitations do not necessarily mark the end of an artistic practice.
Instead, they can force us to look at art, creativity and ourselves differently. Perhaps this is what we can learn from Sam:
The value of an artist is not only measured by what they can produce, but by what they are willing to give, adapt and pass on.
Even when the hands change, the journey can still continue.
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