I'm Going to Teach!

I've been asked many times if I teach watercolour painting. Usually, I'll just refer them to my former teacher or other artist friends who do. But now, I think I'm at a level where I'm more confident with my painting skills and am able to impart my knowledge in this fun and magical medium to anyone who's eager to learn. So, I'm planning to start my own watercolour painting class soon. The first class will most probably be in mid-December. For more details, please click HERE.

Anyone interested to learn from me?

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....

Another Painting on Imperial Palace, Tokyo

This is a long overdue post. I wasn't very satisfied with the first Imperial Palace painting so I actually painted another one about three weeks ago, a different building opposite the one below. This one showed the surrounding lake and a beautiful stonewall bridge, so I thought a portrait format would be better.



Based on a few photos I took last year while visiting Japan, I added the swans which were hiding behind the bridge while I took the photos.Here are 2 of my reference pics.






I spent quite a bit of time trying get the water reflections right, but I think I might have overworked it. Although satisfied with it, I felt that there are still much room for improvement. Anyway, I completed it just in time to be displayed in the Singapore Watercolour Society 39th Annual Exhibition, which I'll blog about after this entry.


Here's the finished painting. Painted on full sheet of Fabriano Artistico stapled onto a 20" x 29" stretching frame, using Artist grade watercolour paints which include W&N, Rembrandt, Schmincke, Holbein, and M.Graham.




Thanks for looking. Critiques and comments are most welcome.