![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SALT-KING-.png\")
The reference photo for the painting taken from the internet.<\/p>\n\u201cI JUST saw a photo of the King online and thought, why not paint something for PNG\u2019s 50th Independence?\u201d says Allan David, a self-taught artist from Simbu Province, now based in Port Moresby.<\/p>\n
From that single image, Allan began working on what would become one of his most treasured pieces, a pointillist portrait which he named the \u201cSalt King\u201d, created to mark Papua New Guinea\u2019s golden jubilee.<\/p>\n
The reference photo for the painting taken from the internet.<\/p>\n
The artwork is more than a royal likeness. It\u2019s a mixture of history, identity, and diplomacy, drawn dot by dot, over the span of a month.<\/p>\n
Painted in pointillism, a technique where images are built entirely from small, deliberate dots, the 100cm x 50cm portrait draws directly from Allan\u2019s heritage in Simbu Province.<\/p>\n
Hailing from the Salt Nomane Karimui District, his ancestors were salt-makers who extracted mineral salt from natural springs and traded it with surrounding highland communities.<\/p>\n
For Allan, each dot represents a grain of salt, paying homage to his ancestral roots in a salt-making tribe.<\/p>\n
His people have, for generations, harvested salt from mineral springs that bubble up from Simbu\u2019s rocky terrains, trading it across the highlands.<\/p>\n
This personal connection to salt inspired both the technique and the title of the piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery dot represents the grains of salt we\u2019ve traded for generations,\u201d Allan explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to honour that history in the painting.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the portrait goes beyond personal storytelling. While the face of King Charles III is recognisable, Allan made deliberate choices to localise the image: the King wears a traditional Simbu headdress, complete with feathers and shell ornaments \u2014 symbols of status and leadership in many PNG cultures.<\/p>\n
The royal robe, painted in regal purples and golds, ties in traditional colours of monarchy, giving the piece both national and international context.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe headdress is actually from my place,\u201d Allan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to place him in our cultural context, not only as a king, but as a chief figure in the PNG culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allan hopes the painting will be presented to a royal representative during the 50th Independence celebrations in September, or purchased by a government body or collector who shares his appreciation for cultural storytelling through art.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a gallery,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call it my Walkabout Gallery since I carry my work with me, from the street to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI JUST saw a photo of the King online and thought, why not paint something for PNG\u2019s 50th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-379463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-royal-families","13":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115104613877627622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}