meeting room

The meeting room was filled with people in the afternoon. I was sitting at the back so sketching is a way to keep myself busy. Don't get me wrong, I was listening and very attentive indeed. I have to say, I am not impressed with the room interior which is furnished with 'interesting features' such as hanging ceiling canvas and pendant lights, not to mention curved cabinets that restrict the layout of the room.

temple without nails

This 169 years old temple built from 1839 to 1842 is the oldest and the most prominent temple in the old days frequented by the Chinese immigrants giving thanks to Ma Zu, the Goddess of the Sea for their safe voyage. Thian Hock Keng Temple is now managed by the rich and powerful Hokkien Clan and it is still visited by local devotees, scholars and tourists. It is located right in the heart of the central business district.

The fascinating part about this temple of southern Chinese architectural style is that the entire structure including the pagoda was assembled without nails. The roof eaves and roof parapets are heavily adorned with dragons and phoenixes which are traditional animals symbolic of auspiciousness. Wu lu or a big gourd on top of the roof of the pagoda on the right side of my sketch symbolizes longevity and the ability to ward off evil spirits.

Inside the temple hall, there is a plaque inscribed with the words 波靖南溟(Gentle Waves over the South Seas) presented by Qing Dynasty Emperor Guang Xu in 1907, evidence of the temple's stature.

The time that I was sketching at the corridor opposite the temple, there must be at least 4 to 5 big tour coaches carrying tourists from different countries visiting the temple. These big coaches often blocked my view so it took me a little longer than expected to finish the sketch. I did it in one hour.

The Evolution of Story

Redefining Sketchy Neighborhoods: Urban Sketchers Draw The World - Jawbone.tv - The Evolution of Story.

Great article about USk by marketing professor Freddy J. Nager

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Dhoby Ghaut District

'Dhoby' is an Anglo-Indian word refers to laundrymen and 'Ghaut' means 'beside the river'. In our early history, it was a place where laundries were done and dried in a big field by the Indians who immigrated to Singapore. Dhoby Ghaut is today a name for a major Mass Rapid Transit Station in a fascinating district located at the end of the famous Orchard Road, our major retail and entertainment hub like the Rodeo Drive in LA, Ginza in Tokyo and Oxford Street in London.

This is the row of old buildings opposite the Dhoby Ghuat MRT station, on the left, the red brick building is MacDonald House which was built as the largest office building in 1949 of a Neo-Georgian style during the post-war era. The building was named after Malcolm MacDonald who was the British Governor-General for Southeast Asia from 1948 to 1955. A bomb exploded and killed 3 people and injured 33 others in 1965 during the Indonesia confrontation period. The 'spiky' building on the extreme right used to be the big car assembly factory called Malayan Motors till late 70s and it is now occupied by a private commerical school.

The buildings in between are of different colonial styles with great characters. I was the architect for the renovation work in one of the buildings in the 80s. I had fond memories of the place when bats were found all over the deserted building during my first site visit. However, I was also intrigued by the various spaces and beautiful detailings within.

Other than MacDonald House which is gazetted as a national monument, the other buildings are not. I really hope they will be there as long as they can as we are seeing too many ugly, fussy glass and steel modern buildings sprouting everywhere with the wrong proportion and scale not to mention total disregard of environmental design.

Club Street today

Also blog at urbansketchers-singapore.

I decided to go back to Club Street and sketched today. So much have changed. Most of the shops were closed on Sunday. The cafe at 60 Club Street was also closed but now it had a different name probably a different owner. Many shops were replaced with new occupants.

All my sketches on Club Street are here. I use Lamy foundation pens to draw and sometimes, in watercolors. This is the only colour piece I did in the same sketchbook filled with black and white sketches. Other colour pieces are done on loose watercolour papers and you can find them on my flickr site.

Hort Park Singapore

This is the event on 14 Aug 2009 for students to sell their work at the Hort Park. We sold quite a lot of clay pieces on behalf of the students in the morning when I was there with a colleague.

Top left : I took the picture when I was packing the kiln.
Top right : after firing, the pieces were left to cool in the early morning.
Middle : we rushed down to Hort Park and set up the stall.
Middle : the lady was looking at a piece and then it was sold!

Most of the pieces you see here such as the horse at the bottom left and the next sculpture piece were sold!

colouring after sketching

a successful wood firing

The wood firing at Thow Kwang Dragon Kiln went smoothly. The firing for the last and 4th stoke hole finished at about 6pm on 8 Aug 2009 - earlier than expected. Thanks to the help rendered by friends that I could go up to the wooden link bridge above the dragon kiln at about 5.30pm to sketch. It was a lively and beautiful sight up there.

More photos and day to day accounts at Thow Kwang Clay Artists.

Istana - the palace

To celebrate the National Day on 9 Aug, it is timely for me to post a sketch of the Istana on National Day eve. The Istana which means Palace in Malay is the official residence of the President of Singapore. The place is open for five occasions only in a year to the public on the Chinese Lunar New Year, Indian Deepavali, Malay Hari Raya Puasa, Labour Day and the National Day. Last Sunday I visited the place it was open to celebrate the upcoming National Day.

The main building or the government house, the national flag and the cannon are the main icons in this sprawling Istana compound of over 100 acres. I excluded the crowd to give the place its sense of saintliness and significance.

Happy 44th National Day Singapore!

Form + Reform

Form + Reform is an 3D art exhibition organised by Ngee Ann Cultural Centre. We managed to get a prominent display corner from the organiser for our students' work. The scupltors and potters invited are the who's who in the 3D Art scene in Singapore such as Jason Lim, Vicent Lim, Chew Sien Kuan, Eddie Goh, Wee Kong Chai, Sim Lian Huat, Jacqueline Ng just to name a few. This year it is not just ceramics and clay but also include stone, metal, wood and mixed media.

inside the dragon kiln

I have done quite a few sketches on the dragon kiln. Here is one sketch I did right inside the kiln showing final stage of packing. I spent my last weekends preparing for the up coming wood firing event on 7, 8 & 9 Aug. We need to finish the packing by this weekend before the owner of the wood kiln seals the entrance on Wednesday. You can find wood firing details here.

I am exhausted but happy!

meeting friends of OIC

Last Saturday I did this quick sketch when artists, designers and illustrators from Organisation of Illustrators Council led by Michael were having their portrait day at MAAD.

We went there when the portraiture session was about to end. We joined the group for a wonderful dinner at a tze char shop called Seng Kee at Keong Siak Street. Good food and good company!

downtown

This is a million dollar view!

Tuesday evening I went downtown to meet a friend. Her office was at 35th storey of Republic Plaza and the view was just spectacular. The circle on the left was the bright orange sun slowly descended into the horizontal as I watched in awe. I managed to do a sketch of the view from her office window before the sky became really dark. The tall building is the Singtel Building designed by Kenzo Tange Associates completed in 1986.

a relax sunday afternoon

It was too hot to go out so I sketch indoor. This is the common lounge where my sister was working on her new laptop after a good Sunday lunch at the Graduate Club of the National University of Singapore. It was a big lounge furnished with sofa sets and a small billiard table. A group of players were at the billiard table. It was hard to sketch when the players were moving all the time so I decided to ignore the crowd and sketch only the father and son. That's my black coffee in the sketch and I can't live without it!

my sketches featured in the Italian magazine

Click these images to enlarge.

Great news, two of my pieces - Laksa and Tibetian Temple are featured in the Italian magazine called Animals. News here.

dooling with blue ink

090708_people_ps, originally uploaded by tiastudio.

One of those day when I was taking a break from the office routine, just play with the endorsing ink I found in my office stationery supply box.

house with entrance staircase

Old houses on the left with ornamented entrance staircase are fast disappearing. This house type has its root in the Malay traditional house design. The location is Joo Chiat Place. I sat at the bus stop opposite the house and sketched this. The ornamented street lamp is of a typical design found in the Joo Chiat / Eunos area traditionally a Malay village. This neighbourhood is flooded with immigrants. How do I know? I hear them speaking in at least four different foreign dialects at the bus stop on a Sunday afternoon.

our popular canteen

Designer Pad - canteen at Temasek Design School where creative juices flow. This canteen is very crowded during lunch time simply because it has a few good food stalls such as the Muslim food stall and the western food stall. The drink stall also serves very good coffee and curry puffs. Yummy!

urbansketchers-singapore blog

USK-Singapore blog is up, please do visit and give your comments to my gifted and talents sketcher friends. Spread the news, follow the blog, sign up as follower and those who are staying in Singapore can contact TIA to participate.

Enjoy!

lonely sketchcrawl

I only knew about sketchcrawl after joining USk. #23 sketchcrawl was last Saturday when I had to work on my clay pieces to prepare for the upcoming 3-day & 2-night woodfiring in early August. I still managed to find time to do one sketch at the dragon kiln. Another earlier piece of the dragon kiln was here.

museum night festival

Last Friday, the facade of the National Museum of Singapore was transformed into colourful canvas with spectacular light insllation. The windmill sculptural frame located at the main entrance of the museum carried at least three performers displaying acrobatic dance moves responding gracefully to sound and music. The performance was dazzling and spectacular culminate with a fantastic pyrotechnics show by Action Theatre PAN.OPTIKUM from Germany.

This interior sketch was done sitting outside the museum cafe before the 10.30pm night show. The crowd at the far end was the location for Donna Ong's installation work entitled "The Crytal City" which was one of my favourite display for the event.

Again, the brown colour floor was the left-over coffee from my drink.

mee pok shop

This noodle shop is my favourite lunch place about 8 minutes drive from my office. The first sketch was done sometime in February and the second just last week opposite the noodle shop. The brown road you see was the left-over black coffee. I don't smoke but the thrill I get from a sketch after lunch is probably the same feeling a smoker gets from a puff after a meal. Hmmm... this is not a good comparison when smoking is totally banned in our country at eating places....yes? no?

empty on Sunday?

Two days ago, Asnee, our Thai fellow urbansketcher had a great post displaying his many beautiful works of Singapore. One of which is our busy downtown central financial district sketched at lunch peak hours. I prefer to sketch the romantic side of Singapore, but here is a rare sketch I did early this year on Raffles Place, our downtown financial district. Inspired by recent digital exploration from the fellow urbansketchers, I added the digital colours last night. Although our downtown area is a typical busy financial belt categorised by many tall, modern and contemporary buildings designed by world renowned architects, there are less traffic and people on Sundays. Is'nt that the problem of all the financial hubs in the world that they all look like ghost towns on Sundays?

Raffles Place

I sketched Raffles Place early this year. The place was empty on Sunday so as my mood then I think. Will like to add some digital colours.

army trucks on campus

Army trucks, jeeps, battle tanks, field guns, armoured vehicles and army dogs are on the campus ground on 1 July to mark the Army Day. I wouldn't want to miss this rare opportunity to sketch the tank which is such a remote subject for me. The army boys could not resist to look at my sketchbook and they also helped me to take a picture while I was sketching. The hot weather was unbearable at about 34C (93F) for me to continue so I went back to my airconditioned office for the colouring.

More information from the graduates who are now in the army, on the left is a bionix on the right a V200..they are greek to me.

a sketch of army day in 2004

Today marks the army day and it is timely for me to post this sketch I did on 1 July 2004 on campus. I also did a new sketch today under the scorching sun and will post later.

kopitiam

Stephane's post talks about risking his life to sketch for Gabi and USKs, how about me risking my waistline going to the food outlets eat, drink and sketch! This is a typical drink or beverage stall at our local coffee shop chain called "KOPITIAM". Cigarettes are displayed above the counter but below the menu board. I was intrigued by this big transparent tube in the middle of the service counter. When I was sketching, I saw ice cubes plunging down from the ceiling to the storage under the counter inside the tube. I have not seen anything like this before.

I also realised by observing and sketching the menu board on top of the stall, the difference between traditional toast and French toast is probably the size of the bread! The fact that I like about sketching on location is really about observation and discovery. The nice lady minding the stall was happy to take a photo with my sketchbook. She also thanked me for making her look younger in the sketch.

this is where I was born!

This is an old building in art-deco architectural style with very attractive yellow door, geometrical window grilles and art nouveau mild steel balustrade design. It has a special place in my heart simply because I was born here. It used to be a very famous private hospital founded by the late Professor A.V. Salmon whose aged daughter is still staying at this building with her helper. I last met her a year ago and briefly chatted with her at the building entrance. Dr Yvonne Salmon is the longest serving staff of the then government run Kandang Kerbau Hospital which has been transformed into today's KK Women's and Children's Hospital. Both father and daughter are the who's who in the history of obstetrics and gynecology in our country.

The building has just been given a new coat of paint. I wish it will not fall prey to urbanisation and modernisation which already seen quite a number of beautiful old buildings been demolished in the vicinity.

agony

This was done in July 2003, 5 months after returning to office from New York.

after a good dinner

This sketch was done after a dinner at Kuishin-Bo, a popular Japanese buffet restaurant. The main draw is the sashimi, chawanmushi, snow crab legs, teppanyakiand and the desserts. It is not the best place for authentic Japanese food but my husband and I wanted a place to relax and eat and drink at our own pace on a Friday evening after a long day at work. After two cups of good coffee and a big piece of dark chocolate, I took out my sketchbook and started to draw.

Turkish composer Toygar Işıklı

Asnee is in town part 2

We were so lucky to be in the middle of the army reheasal for the National Day parade. This must be a rare picture with the army choppers over the sky. While we were having a drink at Harry's, the helicopters flew past with this huge Singapore flag. Artist friends from Thailand, you visit Esplanade at such a perfect day and time.

Asnee is in town

Yesterday, I met Asnee, our fellow Thai urbansketcher and Pramote, his friend. Both arrived from Penang after meeting with Ch'ng Kiah Kien. Three of them had a wonderful sketching extravaganza combing the streets of Penang, Malaysia. Asnee will post about his sketching trips to Buthan, Penang and Singapore when he goes back to Thailand. Although it was the first time we met, I was so excited over the watercolour pieces they had done at the Singapore River in the morning before our meeting. Pramote's sketching gear is also making me very jealous! Asnee and I are working hard to get Pramote to join the USK community.



After lunch, we went to Club Street for a quick tour. Asnee and I did a sketch of a newly opened bookstore Polymath and Crust from opposite view of the interior.



We took a photo with Kenny and Karen, the young owners of the bookstore. In the next photo, Kenny was browsing through Asnee's sketchbook.



I also brought them to Esplanade where Asnee did another wonderful sketch while Pramote and I were enjoying a glass of good cold beer.



While I was writing this post, Asnee just gave me a call to tell me they will be leaving for Thailand soon. Till we meet again fellow urbansketchers!