Fine artist Khairul Azmir Shoib is, perhaps, one of the most honest and unpretentious artists I have met. Honest – being how he forthrightly describes his work is defined and derived from simply his very own collective memory, no claiming of quantum leap or other phenomenon whatsoever. Unpretentious – being his home studio is a place you can view his work without the queasiness of an artist’s nest. You know, those with excess flair for design.

‘Books that I read, songs that I heard, and movies that I watched became a part of the memory,’ says Khairul who draws what comes to his mind. The 34-year-old artist and lecturer’s work easily reminds you of Tim Burton’s book ‘The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy’, or for that matter, any of his dark and gothic caricatures that we have grown to associate through his movies such as ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. ‘I create my characters in my paintings based on what I have come to see and known as a child,’ says the Taiping native who is now based in Kuala Lumpur.

Gone are the days where Khairul (also affectionately known as Meme, from his second name Azmir, truncated) focuses on realism in his work. His paintings now emphasise surreal characters of varied moods and behaviours – usually images of puppets and mythical creatures with intense gazes. His work brings out the dark forces, somewhat parallel to our contemporary complex society – though pushing a focus beyond the skin, where its beauty lies on the expressions. His paintings take us into the gloomy fantasy world but never far from reality.

‘I want my viewers to interpret the feelings or moods of my characters themselves, instead of me telling them what to think,’ says Khairul of his work, although some of the choices of colours that he prefers in his paintings suggest otherwise.

In his home studio, where his current work is on display, blue, green and pink dominate the backdrop in his paintings. These are the colours that Khairul uses extensively – which are somewhat a contrast to the ethereal characters he’s created. Picture Jack Skellington from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ washed in pastel blue background, or Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ in pastel pink background.

‘It’s a mysterious colour,’ he says of the blue, ‘and it brings a calming effect.’ He points out that the character in his painting gives away the expression, whilst the background, his actual mood at time of painting. ‘Pink brings out the feminine side of me,’ he smiles, nodding on the Yin and Yang analogy I give him. His work often sees him applying mixed media – pen and acrylic – on canvas.

To date, the artist has done more than a thousand paintings and his work has been exhibited (individually and grouped) around the Klang Valley prominently. Khairul holds a masters degree in Fine Arts and Technology from UiTM and has lectured in LimKokWing College University of Creative Technology and in Cenfad Design College, among others.

In March, Khairul opens a new solo exhibition in R.A. Fine Arts gallery and attempts to showcase 50 new paintings. Entitled ‘My Heartwork’, the artist’s latest series of paintings displays a study of mystical characters and the different moods that he brings into these paintings. This series is a departure from his last solo exhibition in 2006, that centred around fairies and mythical creatures, called ‘Fairieality’. ‘As an artist, or even an art student for starts, our artworks have to be continuous. But we have to move on and create something new. This exhibition is a showcase of how my work has evolved,’ he says.

Commercial wise, Khairul is glad that his work receives much attention and that there are art collectors who value contemporary work and collect them. ‘Most collectors are into classic paintings. But there are many who still appreciate contemporary artworks,’ he says, although admitting that the younger generations are the ones who are more open to his work.

Nevertheless, Khairul, who collects toy figures and sculptures and has them nicely placed around his home studio, believes that a personal style is the key to success in this trade. ‘It’s not easy to be an artist,’ he responds when I throw him the question at point blank. ‘I don’t have any message that I want to convey when I paint,’ he says. ‘Like I mentioned earlier, I want people to be able to think what they want, feel what they want when they see my work.’

True enough, imagination and freedom of expression should not be controlled – and this is what Khairul, aka Meme, aims to achieve through his wild, moody, surreal and fantastical paintings.

RA Fine Arts, 6 Jalan Aman, off Jalan Tun Razak, KL (03-2161 7341).