In Love With Penang

Javier is now 3 months old... he can roll-over, hold his head up and smile back us... too cute!

I was part of a 6-person contingent from Singapore Watercolour Society (SWS) that paid Penang a visit in conjuction with the Penang-Singapore Watercolour Exhibition. Our travelling group consists of Seah Kam Chuan, Seah Kang Chui, Chew Piak San, Loy Chye Chuan, Anne Lim Geok Kuan and myself.














We are indeed very honoured to be invited by Penang Watercolour Society (PWCS) to participate in their annual exhibition this year. There were 16 and 36 artists from SWS and PWCS respectively who took part in this joint-exhibition held from 21 September - 10 October 2006 at The Penang State Art Gallery.

Unlike Singapore, Penang still exudes a sense of old-world charm where old buildings and shophouses are still not heavily renovated, and even those that were, they were done tastefully and their original architecture and facade remained intact, unlike the many weird combination of colours (think pink, orange, green, magenta, etc) found in the refurbished shophouses in Singapore. Who in the right mind could think of such mismatched of colours?




















There are still roadside hawker stalls selling mouth-watering local dishes like Penang laksa, Char Kway Tiaw, and Wanton Noodles just to name a few. While taking pictures of the scene, I was fascinated by the hustle and bustle on the busy market and the somewhat disorganized traffic flow where trishaw riders, scooters and pedestrians tried to move about in the congested market. With old shophouses lining the street that serve as the backdrop, it is indeed a refreshing and interesting sight.

There are also plenty of fishing villages and ports where people lives a more laid-back lifestyle but yet diligently work on their trade to provide seafood supplies to the local markets and restaurants. We visited Chew Jetty where villagers of the surname Chew live in houses with stilts on top of the seaside and theirhouses are connected by wooden walkway. **We joked that Chew Piak San and I will be always welcomed to stay there for free since we share their surname** :-)

We managed to spend some time at Telok Bahang doing sketches and plein air paintings at a jetty with many fishing boats docking at the side (I'll blog on the painting on another post).
















Penang is also famous for its many places of worship like the Kek Lok Si Temple, the Snake Temple, etc. We visited Wat Chayamangkalaram Temple with the giant Reclining Buddha, Dharmikarama Burmese Temple and The Khoo Kongsi. Each temple has its own unique architecture and have its own importance in Penang's rich historical and cultural background.

Another site that worth mentioning is the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, a blue coloured building that is so rich with Chinese heritage that it was deservedly awarded the UNESCO Asia Pacific Heritage Award 2000. The building itself is a masterpiece of chinese architecture and its breathtaking exterior walls and interior halls and courtyards are incorporated with many feng shui symbols which explain the owner's fascination with this ancient study of yin and yang.
















It has been the most enjoyable and memorable trip to Penang. I've tried Penang Laksa at a roadside stall (but of course my favourite is still Sarawak Laksa), walked around the city center and being mesmerized by the colonial buildings and the many old shophouses and most important of all, made new friends who shared the love of painting.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Khoo Cheang Jin (the president of PWCS), Ch'ng Kiah Kiean, Alex Leong, Ooi Chee Kheng and Tan Tee Hean for taking time out from their busy schedules to fetch us from the airport, taking us around your beautiful island of Penang and being the most gracious host. Your friendship and hospitality are very much appreciated. We hope to return the favour when you visit Singapore.

Durian Season Is Here Again!

Javier is almost 3-month old!! and he can roll over sideways and hold his head up already!!! :-)

I had initially planned to paint around Chinatown with a few artist friends but just as I was about to board the train, my friend (who lives at the western part of Singapore) called and said it has started to rain and called off the plein aire session.

I live at the eastern part and the sky was already covered with dark clouds but still holding on....and since I'm already at the train station, rain or no rain, I decided to paint anyway, but chose another location nearer to the East, hoping that it wouldn't rain in this part of Singapore.

I alighted at Aljunied Station, and walked towards Sims Avenue when I spotted a couple of trucks and workers unloading tons of durians, the king of fruits. ** Durian is a seasonal tropical fruit with torn-like spikes on its shell and the contents are milky, creamy in colour. It smells like vintage wine to those who love it, or rotten eggs to those who hate it. **

Me? I don't hate it (used to hate it when I was a kid), but I don't worship it like some people either... ;-)

Well, looking at the photo below, I guess it's in season now...

The scene - truck loads of DURIANS!!

This is where I'm seated with the almost finished painting.

The painting and my tools

Here's the final result... For some reasons, I wasn't too pleased with this painting. I couldn't pin-point what wasn't right though... it just doesn't feel right....perhaps I'm not used to painting vehicles.

It's half-sheet of Fabriano Artistico (14" x 21"), painted using W&N, Rembrandt and M.Graham Artists Paint. Comments and critique welcome as usual.

Art Restoration of A Different Kind

A couple of months ago, Robin showed me a photograph of headless statues that he had taken some time ago. These are actually statues of Buddha painstakingly carved out from rock formation. Sadly, treasure hunters had other ideas. They chopped off the heads and probably sold them as antiques to feed their own greed and bulging bank accounts.


Robin asked if I could do a painting of the statues with Buddha's heads intact. Well, I usually don't like to paint something that I've never seen, or somewhere I've never been to... and trying to put back Buddha's heads could be a little difficult. Not someone who would shy away from a challenge, I agreed.

Although Robin did sent me a couple of pictures of Buddha for my reference, I needed to do some more research and thanks to Google! Image, I managed to find tons of pictures and chose a few for my reference.

That was nearly 2 month ago as I've been busy with work, baby and the exhibition (not necessary in that order) and only had time to paint it over the past two days. Better late than never, right? :) Here are step-by-step progress pictures...

1. The Drawing
A rough sketch of the painting... but with enough details to mark where everything is.

2. The First Wash
Some called it First Glaze, Underpaint, Mother Wash... whatever... it serves the same purpose, ie. to lay the colour foundation for the rest of the painting. Here, I used 4 colours to lay the first wash - Cadmium Orange, Yellow Ochre, New Gamboge and Cerulean Blue, and painted them wet-into-wet.



3. Defining The Darks
When the wash has completely dried, I started to define the shapes of the statues and other structures with dark colours - a variety of Arizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue and Sepia.



4. Shaping With Mid-Tone Colours
I carried on to build the shapes with mid-tone colours and at this stage, my brushstrokes were very loose and splashy, just enough to make a representation of the structure as a whole.



5. The Finishing Touch
I added darks on the shaded areas and to make it looked more realistic, I further enhanced the shapes and curves of the statues, this time using a smaller brush so that I can reach the smaller areas. I also made sure the whole composition in terms of colours, tonal values were balanced.... and last but not least, to add more texture on the rock surface, I splattered some leftover paints with a toothbrush and signed it!



This is painted on Fabriano Artistico (Half sheet 14" x 21") using W&N, Rembrandt and M.Graham artist watercolour paints. It took me two nights to draw and paint it, about six hours in total.

So, what do you call this? Art restoration of a different kind? I hope Robin will come and give us more info about the statues and its location.

Hope you like it. Critiques and comments welcome as usual.

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UPDATE

Robin e-mailed and informed me that his friend, an expert in antiques and Buddhist statues commented that the two statues besides Buddha could be further improved by adding thier head-dresses.

"The middle buddha (amitahba) needs no change. Both Kuan Yin and Da Shi Zhi has similiar head dress.. In fact in the sutra, both of them look alike and similiar, with one standing left and the other right."

Therefore, to depict the stautes more accurately, I've made some changes by adding the head-dress. Here's the updated version...

SWS 37th Annual Exhibition - Watercolour Splashes

Singapore Watercolour Society held its 37th Annual Exhibition, Watercolour Splashes, recently from 1st to 3rd September 2006.

Although the exhibtion dates are shorter than previous years and given the limited resources we had, I think it should be considered a satisfactory show. However, the disturbing fact remains that some artists chose not to participate in the exhibition and I must admit this doesn't bode well with the long-term progress and development of the society as a whole when there are more and more inactive members. :(

Well, 30 members participated in this year's exhibition and there were over 50 paintings on show. Five paintings were sold at the end although mine wasn't. Don't worry, I'm not disappointed or anything... it would have been nice to sell something, but the art market here especially for traditional watercolour paintings are quite poor in the first place, so I didn't put too much hope into selling mine. :-)


Anyway, here are some photos taken during the opening.

Opening speech by the President of the society, Seah Kam Chuan

The exhibition was officially opened by the
guest-of-honour, Mr D.J. Tan who subsequently
bought two paintings... thanks for supporting
our artists even though he didn't pick mine ;)

Here are the crowds on the opening day...

...and me with one of my paintings (Fullerton Hotel painted earlier this year)

Later this month, I'll be exhibiting two half-sheets in an exhibition in Penang, Malaysia on the 21st September. It's a collaboration between Penang Watercolour Society and Singapore Watercolour Society.... and we plan to have a plein aire/outdoor painting session with members of both societies. It should be fun :)