DENPASAR (indo.com): Bali is to participate in the Ramayana Painting Exhibition in Hawaii, which will be held from October 2002 to the end of January 2003, and is to display 100 artworks on canvas.

Bali will display around 60 paintings taken from the Neka Museum in Ubud, reflecting the "Ramayana" epic. The other 40 paintings are from Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, India, Myanmar, and Laos.

As one of the committee members of this event, Garret Kam said that the Ramayana epic was taken as the theme since it is a great source of inspiration to fuel the painters' creativity. He added that the artists whose artworks are selected for exhibition will be present at the opening ceremony.

This foreign painting watcher as well the author of the book of Ramayana painting has been in Bali for many years. He has adopted a Balinese name, Nyoman Swastawa.