For Malcolm Golding, retouching his hotel mural is paradise regained
Malcolm Golding is back where he was 23 years ago, putting the final touches to his personal vision of the imaginary paradise of Shangri-La.
The Lamma-based artist is restoring four large murals he painted in the lobby of the Kowloon Shangri-La. For six months before the hotel accepted its first guests in 1981, Golding worked on his concept of the mystical mountain enclave made famous by author James Hilton in his book Lost Horizon.
Golding's version of Shangri-La is a lush tropical valley hemmed by startling mountains, with colourful birds and huge flowering plants surrounding a stylised Chinese palace.
Repainting the expansive murals brings them back to exciting, vivid life.
In recent weeks, Golding and his work have become a tourist attraction. Hotel guests sipping tea or a glass of wine watch as he clambers up and down a bamboo scaffolding and goes through the patient but exhausting work.