Jasmine Raj's Charitable Brush

Noble: Jasmine, who only paints for charity, showing off a booklet of her works.

Jasmine Raj embarked on a new pursuit, painting for charity, to help her deal with breast cancer.

It was surprising to find that Jasmine Raj would balk at the idea of sporting skin art on her face for a photo shoot.

For this abstract artist who paints exclusively for charity, her face, she insisted ‘was all she has left’ after undergoing close to 40 surgeries and procedures in her fight against cancer.

While a bit of face painting would be peanuts in comparison, Jasmine a former model did not think she could carry it off.

Not that she is the timid type.

This mother of two had thrown a champagne party a day before her bilateral mastectomy in 2003 and is the type of patient who will sneak out of the hospital just so she could attend a New Year’s Eve party.

Still, when it comes to her face, this attractive and very youthful-looking 40-year-old, we suspect, is a bit of a vain pot who has a penchant for painting her shapely lips in a bright red hue.

And it was with red lips that Jasmine led us to her first painting, The Awakening.

The piece, which seemed to throb and pulsate, is done entirely in red, with hues of yellows and orange to create a sense of texture.

Staying positive: Jasmine at work in her garden.

Done in 2004, Jasmine revealed that working on it had been “an awakening” for her as she embarked on the artistic path to help her deal with her cancer. The Awakening had come about the time when Jasmine came to the decision that she would not wallow in despair over her condition.

This monumental piece, her very first conscious attempt to paint her will to live, graces the path to her kitchen and is not for sale.

This does not apply to her other works of course, which have gone towards helping other cancer patients under organisations like PRIDE and MAKNA.

In an exhibition for PRIDE last October at the Matahari Gallery, Jasmine raised over RM70, 000 for them.

“I am not commercial. I paint only for charity,” said Jasmine affirming herself.

Revealing how this had come about, Jasmine recalled that her foray into art began as early as when she was12, having been influenced by her mother Jaclyn Raj who painted as a hobby.

In 1999 after having met her future husband, Leo Ariyanayakam, now 45, and a successful stint in the arena of interactive marketing, Jasmine took folk art where she learned the ABC’s of painting.

She also went under the tutelage of Karl-heinz Mesbach, an American painter who taught her shading techniques and with his encouragement, she moved on to the big canvas.

But the biggest push and ironically, the major driving force that had driven Jasmine to paint for charity had been her battle with breast cancer.

Will to live: Jasmine standing in front of her first work, The Awakening.

Her quest to find a way to ease her mind of the worrisome baggage of her disease would not go unnoticed and soon, she found interested parties enquiring if she could lend them her talents for fund raising purposes.

“That was when my girlfriends rallied to help organise the logistics and they diligently sat down and factored the time and materials for my paintings so that I could put a price on them,” revealed Jasmine.

In explaining how she works, Jasmine revealed that she is dictated by no one.

“From the onset, I have insisted that I will only paint what I want and what inspires me,” she said.

And from the looks of it, Jasmine is never short of inspiration.

From the hilly ranges of her hometown in Gombak to the abstract images of a family basking in contentment, Jasmine seems to have recorded all her deepest and most profound memories on canvas.

And to watch Jasmine at work is likened to seeing someone take a leisurely stroll.

A swathe of colour here, a dab of something else there and time off to pick a bristle in between ...

“I never know what the final result of my painting is going to be like. Somewhere in between I’d think of something else and that will go into my work,” said this artist who incorporates plenty of greens, yellows and reds to indicate her positive state of mind.

Still one cannot help but wonder if Jasmine, who is into her third remission, has ever had her grey days.

“I was never frightened because I have always known that I will be all right. I have my pillars of strength in Leo, my mother, mother-in-law, my children, sisters and my friends.

“Still I would not term myself as ‘courageous’. That word is better reserved for those who have been there for me as I think it is harder to be a caregiver than someone who is receiving care,” she concluded.

For more on Jasmine’s work, log on to www.jasmineraj.com.