Singapore Art Show 2009 - Art In The Works

I was involved in a 2-day art workshop/demo event held in conjunction with the Singapore Art Show 2009, called Art In The Works at Raffles City Shopping Centre, in downtown Singapore, on 12 and 13 September

The objective was to promote various forms of art and to engage the public to appreciate and take part in visual art. There were chinese calligraphy, chinese seal carving, oil, acrylic, pencil & charcoal drawing, Indian sand art, glass art, and of course, watercolour (being represented by Singapore Watercolour Society).

On the first day, I did a 2-hour demo of a landscape painting, based on a plein air piece I did recently. Thereafter, my former teacher, mentor and good friend, Mr Loy Chye Chuan painted a close-up of an old staircase.

Here are some pics taken on the first day.

Javier came in the morning to help out with the setting-up

Daddy, where do I place this book?

Yours truly
Almost Done
Mr Loy Chye Chuan at his best!

The completed demo painting by Loy Chye Chuan

Kids having fun at the watercolour workshop

On the second day, I did another demo, painting the scene of Boat Quay along Singapore River, while Mr Seah Kam Chuan did a demo of window shutters of a peranakan styled shophouse. I will post the photos taken on the second day as soon as I get the photos from the photographer.

Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore

Here's a latest work I did last week, depicting the last kampong (means "village" in Malay) in Singapore. I fell in love with the rural and laid back lifestyle there when I first visited the place many years ago. I went back again in March this year and took several reference photos.... and I finally got down to paint it recently.

It's a studio work done over approximately five hours. Compared to my plein air works, I have more time to work on the details especially the plants and flowers in the garden, ie. the focal point of the painting. Usually, I would add a few figures in my landscapes and street scenes works to create more interest. But for this painting, I wanted to show the quiet and peaceful environment of this little village, so I left them out. The colourful flowers and various plants around the area are obvious suggestions that the place is still occupied by people who prefer to lead a simple life here.

Here's the painting. Half sheet of Fabriano Artistico (approx. 14" x 21")
I use Winsor & Newton, Rembrandt, Schmincke, Holbein and M.Graham Artist Grade watercolour paints.



... and here are some close-up shots of the painting





Hope you like it. Comments and critiques are welcome as usual.

Old Singapore River Scene

I received an inquiry recently to do a commissioned painting of old Singapore scene as a corporate gift for their clients. Although it's been three weeks and they have not come back with a definite answer, I did the unthinkable and proceed to paint a scene of Singapore River during the early 1980s. Well, I thought I have nothing to lose anyway. I've been wanting to paint such subject for some time but keep delaying it... so if the deal is on, I'll sell them the painting, if it's not, it will be part of my growing collection, perhaps for an exhibition in the future. :)

Here's the painting.
Painted on Fabriano Artistico Rough (quarter sheet 10" x 15"), with Rembrandt, Winsor & Newton and Schmincke Artist paints.

Hope you like it. Comments and critiques are welcome as usual.

Anderson Bridge & Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year "恭喜发财，万事如意" to all my friends, collectors, fans and art lovers,

Here's my first painting for the year 2009. Actually, I started it in mid-December 2008 at my art class before the students arrive, but only completed it last week. YES! I am teaching watercolour painting now, every Saturday afternoon at the studio of Singapore Watercolour Society at Telok Kurau Studios. I currently teach four students, a new student will join in February, and that makes it five in total.

It's been a good start to the new year for me. I sold one of my plein air paintings at the Telok Kurau Studios annual exhibition just two weeks ago and am really enjoying teaching. Apart from that, it is busy busy busy attending to the two kids, especially Javier who is always actively and curiously looking for new things to do. This means I hardly have time to paint at home. So, I tried to go to my art class earlier to paint something before the students come in.

Here's the painting... Half sheet of Fabriano Artistico (approx 14" x 21"), painted in Rembrandt, Schmincke, Winsor & Newton Artist Watercolours.

Comments and critiques are welcome as usual. Have fun during this Chinese New Year! :)

Botanic Gardens Photoshoot

Happy New Year!

I went to Singapore Botanic Gardens for a New Year's eve photoshoot yesterday.
I haven't been putting my Pentax dslr to use as much as I'd like to, and when I do, it's mostly shooting my kids and paintings.

So, since I'm only required to work half-day on Dec 31st, I thought I'd visit the Botanic Gardens to shoot some nice landscapes and flowers there... who knows, I might get some good reference photos for my painting class too.

All pics taken with either the kit lens 18-55mm or FA50mm F1.4

Telok Kurau Studios Annual Exhibition 2008

For the second continuous year, I will be representing Singapore Watercolour Society to participate in Telok Kurau Studios Annual Exhibition 2008 - Mountains as non-mountains.
(Don't ask me how they got the title for this exhibition or what does it mean, I have no idea as well :P)


Opening is on this Saturday 10:30am at TKS Gallery, Telok Kurau Studios. Please refer to the invitation cards below for more details:



This is the painting I'm exhibiting, a plein air work done earlier this year - House on Emerald Hill

Singapore Riverbank

Here's another painting of Singapore River, done about a week ago. Very similar to the plein air I did last year, but I decided to have a wider panaromic view of the riverbank.

As this is done at home where I had more time to plan and paint it, the "spaceship" lookalike building (the new Supreme Court to be exact) turned out much nicer and not as dominant as my earlier effort.

Here's the painting.

Half sheet of Fabriano Artistico Rough (approx 14" x 21"), painted using Artist grade watercolour paints, ie. W&N, Rembrandt, Holbein and Schmincke.

Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are welcome and much appreciated.

Singapore Cityscape

I am currently involved in a project at work which follows a very tight schedule where we're required to work over weekends, which means at least no time for painting for more than 2 weeks. So, I decided to paint something before I'm too busy looking at profit centers, accounts, trading partners and numbers.

This is the main Central Business District of downtown Singapore. According to the owner of a local gallery, such paintings are sought after by tourists, businessmen, etc. and so... here it is my interpretation.

I'll probably paint a few popular touristy areas of Singapore and hopefully, sell them in the gallery on consignment basis.

Half sheet of Fabriano Artistico Rough (approx 14" x 21"), painted using Artist grade watercolour paints, ie. W&N, Rembrandt, Holbein, Schmincke and M.Graham.

Comments and critiques are welcome as usual.

Glorious 39 - A pictorial

Just wanna share with you some of the photos taken during Singapore Watercolour Society's 39th Annual Exhibition 2008 - Glorious 39 held two weeks ago from 26 to 29 September 2008.We had quite a good turnout, good crowd on the opening and over the weekend, the standard of watercolour works are getting better and better each year, and we also organized the 2nd Singapore National Junior Watercolour Competition for children aged between 10 and 18.


On 27 Sep, my former teacher and mentor Mr Loy Chye Chuan did a 1.5 hours watercolour demonstration showing the audience how to paint a sliced watermelon, a bananna, a tree, a crack on a concrete floor and ended the demo with a quick seaside scene painting.


The following day on 28 Sep, while the whole Singapore is witnessing the first Formula 1 night race, we're busy with another demo where Mr Seah Kam Chuan, did a 1.5 hours watercolour demonstration. He painted a rural riverside scene, showing how to retain the white of paper using masking fluid and creating texture using salt.

Here are some of the pics...

The exhibition venue at Ngee Ann Cultural Centre, Teochew Building

The crowds on the opening day

Guilding the VIPs while they view the artworks on display

Explaining my artwork to the Guest-of-honour, Dr Cheryl Baumann

Dr Baumann with the winners of the Junior Watercolour Competition

Paintings by winners and finalists of the Junior Watercolour Competition

Mr Loy Chye Chuan's demo

We used a video camera to shoot and show what he's doing onto a projection screen

Mr Loy answering queries from enthusiastic watercolour fans

Results from the 1.5 hours demo

Mr Seah Kam Chuan's demo

Using hair dryer to speed things up...

Notice how he used salt technique for the background trees and masking fluid to leave out the white paper for the poles, leaves, boat etc.

The finished demo painting in 1.5 hours...

This is the only photo I have taken with my painting as I was too busy attending to the guests on the opening day, and the next two days I was the assigned photographer for the 2 demos.... therefore only managed to snapped this one.

Pandan Shipyard & me

My other painting in the exhibition - Imperial Palace, Tokyo - the one on the right is Mr Loy's painting.

Thanks for looking.... hope you like the photos....

Outdoor Painting - Kinta Road, Singapore

I was out about painting en plein air again last Sunday with a group of artist friends. This is an old shophouse along Kinta Road, near Little India. Many people crowded around us to watch us paint. Some looked on quietly, some made a few comments amongst themselves in their own language, probably in Tamil which I do not understand... they could criticize, said it's a horrible, or bad mouth me all they want and I won't understand a word! haa!

After watching us for a while, an Indian woman came up to me and asked "Are you guys having a competition?" I was dumbfounded, unsure how to react to her question, so I just smiled and said "No, we're just painting for fun". Then came her next question "Are you an architect?" "no, no... we're just here to paint. It's our hobby".

She nodded and left us... this is just one of the many questions and funny incidents I've encountered over the years when painting en plein air... fun, isn't it?

Well, here's the painting...

Here are some close-up shots of the details...

Hope you like it. Comments and critiques are welcome!

Jalan Besar, Singapore

I painted this a few days ago at home. This stretch of road is called Jalan Besar, literally translated as Huge Road in Malay, probably because it was the widest road before Singapore's independence from British rule.

Here' s the painting, a quarter-sheet, painted in 2.5 hours.

Jalan Besar, Singapore (11" x 15")
If you would like to own this painting, click HERE

and here are some of the close-up shots of the painting

Hope you like it. Comments and critiques are welcome as usual.