Tina Rimmer: the Unconventional English Art Ist In Post-war Sabah

Abstract

This article is focused on the life of artist Tina Rimmer or Mary Christina née Lewin who at 97, is a veteran painter in Sabah, well-known for her ‘Tamparuli Tamu’ scenes but has chosen to retire in the colony she was sent to as the first Woman Education Officer under the British Colonial Government in 1949. While many of her comrades returned to Great Britain after their retirement, she and her husband Bert Rimmer became Malaysian citizens instead. Still an avid painter, Tina Rimmer feels her artworks are important historical recordings for the future pertaining to Sabah and does not intend to let her artworks leave this country unlike her colonial predecessors. Furthermore, her lifestyle and her art is highlighted in this article as different from those of the colonial women or colonial artists in the colonies in her day. It is this difference which is explored and underlined as ‘unconventional’ in this article.