Exhibition on media

The exhibition "Tiong Bahru Sketches: Outside-In" featuring works by me and three other sketchers is posted on local paper Straits Times and also on TimeOut Singapore online.

Sketchwalk this June

The upcoming sketchwalk with OIC and Urbansketchers will be at KTM, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station which will be relocating to Woodlands soon. This will be a good chance to sketch this historic landmark inside and out, trains included.

Tia, the organiser, says that they have famous Teh Tarik for tea break finish with Bak Kut Teh lunch at Tai Wah opposite at PSA/HDB block.

We will meet at Tanjong Pagar MRT control station this Saturday at 9am. And start walking toward the old train station at 9am sharp. Please call Tia at 96968080 if you have any questions.

Exhibition at White Canvas Gallery

my second video clip

This second video I made is the collection of still images taken by Carol, Paul, Don and TIA on the sketchwalk on 27 Mar and sketching adventures over a few weekends from 22 May to 12 June, 2010. It is timely to do this in conjunction with our exhibition "Outside-In" at White Canvas Gallery on sketches of Tiong Bahru.

I made my first video clip

The secret is out. My friends and students are circulating the first video clip that I made today using iMovie with the raw files taken by Carol - my friend who followed us to most of the sketching adventures with her camera. Enjoy!

Note : This video received a lot of attention and I have been asked about the tools that I used. I was using China Hero M86 calligraphy fountain pen with American waterproof Noodler's ink. The tool for watercolour is Pentel Japan Aquash water brush. It is quite global when you come to tools. HA!

Ikebana at the Pottery Jungle

We all had so much fun at our first Ikebana lesson last Sunday at the Dragon Kiln aka the Pottery Jungle. We used our wood fired pots as the containers and took Linda's advice on the type of flowers and leaves. With the photographers' help, they sure look professional.

Corner 57

Last Saturday, I wanted to try something new so I decided to use the paper and pastels from Paul, one of the sketchers whom I will be exhibiting my sketches with from 30 Jun to 17 Jul. I had to use his palette and that was a new challenge on location when you were using unfamiliar art materials and tools. I quite enjoyed the process of this new experience.

Clothes 82

Block 82, corner of Tiong Poh Road and Eng Watt Street at Tiong Bahru. This view with the clothes drying outside the window has been a common feature opposite the corner coffee shop selling the famous porridge. The splashed sepia tone was the black coffee I ordered from the shop. The act of pouring coffee on the spot caught the attention of a family of four sitting directly next to my table - a mother with 3 children who were throwing abusive words at each others. The mother was brave enough not to cause further distraught but repeatedly urging the children to stop talking. At one point, the two girls - one teenager and the other in primary school level almost got off their seats and started to throw the food at each other, oh dear, why it had to come to this stage?

What a relief when the children stopped the noise and looked towards my direction as I splashed the coffee on the paper. They left before I completed the piece as a happy family.

Row 81

Row 81 - the sky was still bright so I drove down to sketch after the conference ended at around 6pm at the near-by Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. It was a quiet neighbourhood.

Splashes 82

This is a wild piece with bold splashes done before the ink line work. More splashes were added after the line work. I quite like the heavy background at the top in contrast with the light white cars at the bottom.

Inside 83

Inside Tiong Bahru market and food court. This place is the landmark of the estate. The famous rice cake (chwee kuey) and other delicacies have been synonymous with the area.

Corner 71

I call this piece "Corner 71". I agree to display these Tiong Bahru sketches at an exhibition on 30 Jun with 3 other urban sketchers at White Canvas Gallery at Tiong Bahru. This long format of size 45cm x 15cm was done on a new sketchbook CACHET by Daler Rowney. Click here to see the first sketch on this new sketchbook.

Another Night Sketch

We call ourselves splashers.
I was splashing the colours on the cement paved floor after dinner.
Spontaneous but unglamorous.

Flat 46

Flat 46 - the name given to this piece simply because the flat with the semi-circular staircase landing is number 46. It is along Seng Poh Road and they are HDB flats. Across the road are private flats with different architectural features unmistakenly 1930s art deco style. The 1989 convertible red VW belongs to Chin KK, an architect friend who is also the proud resident of Tiong Bahru. He was seen attending to his beauty on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Night 64 - Night Sketching

This was done at night so the sky is really dark. Night sketching is very suitable for us in the tropic with hot and humid weather in the day. Night sketching was fun especially when you are with like-minded people complete with the yummy food and drink. I hope we won't grow fatter with all the eating and drinking. The folks in the Tiong Bahru neighbourhood are so friendly, wherever we go, they will be people coming up to us and chat.

This piece together with other Tiong Bahru sketches will be on sale in the upcoming exhibition from 30 June to 17 July 2010 at White Canvas Gallery located within the neighbourhood. Please contact the gallery at ricky@whitecanvas-gallery.com if you are interested to purchase.

new and old skyline from Tiong Bahru

Paul, Don, Miel and yours truly are planning for a joint exhibition on Tiong Bahru, one of the oldest estates in Singapore. So, we have been combing the neighbourhood for the past weeks and met many interesting people and discovered the cultural and historical aspects of the place. The view of this watercolour piece was taken from Kelvin Ang's house on the second storey. I love how the new and the old skyline come together harmoniously in this view and I try to capture it by manipulating the light and shadow in the midground and background.

a drawing trip at Boat Quay

On Tuesday, we had our drawing class at Boat Quay, Singapore River. I did this sketch during my lunch hour at a local cafe / restaurant called DOME. The two ladies were so engrossed in a conversation that they did not notice me sitting diagonally across their table. I was using the new aquired ink called 'Perankan Brown' specially made for the local market by Noodler's Ink of America. The coffee stain was from the last few drops of the black coffee that I ordered. At the restaurant, I also met Colin,the gallery owner whom I just talked to on Sunday. What a small world!

The weather was hot but great as it was raining on Monday and Wednesday. The weather was with us! Students never failed to impress me with their attitude and enthusiasm, many had also improved so much considering this was their tenth day into the drawing class with me. Great job guys!

Here are some photos on the drawing trip. I really love their sketches, well done!

day two of wood firing

I stayed overnight to help out with the wood firing at the stoke holes at two sides of the dragon kiln. Helpers came at 2am and 4am so again, I was not required to feed the dragon but helped with minor duty instead. I helped with preparing clay slip to seal off the stoke holes and recording the temperature readings etc. I also got to take a nap in the comfortable air-cond office while others had to sleep in the cars or on the benches in the open air.

At around 6am, we took the buggy out for a spin on the jungle trail admiring the sun rays penetrating through the thick foliage in the woods. When we returned from the jungle adventure, I did another watercolour piece in the early morning and this time, on my favourite tree house and the banyan tree.

day one of wood firing

The wood firing at the dragon kiln started on Friday, 28 May at around 8am by Martha Stewart. Yes, she was in Singapore and they did the filming at Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle early morning! Wood firing was a 2-day, 1-night event and with so many helpers around, I did not have to do my shift of throwing the wood into the fire box. I had time to do a watercolour piece on day one at around 6pm before the BBQ when the sky turned pitched dark. The turnout for the BBQ this year was fantastic that for the very first time, late comers had to park their cars outside the main gate along the kampong (in Malay - means village) trail.

For this piece of work, I splashed some colours on the watercolour paper and let the colours to dry completely before using the fountain pen to do the line work. I then added the colours to bring out the mood and depth of the fire box. At this time inside the fire box, the temperature was around 700 deg C, so I could feel the heat too sitting near to the fire box doing this piece of work.

another sketch after dinner

I realise I have not posted this sketch. It was pouring like cats and dogs so I stayed after dinner at this eating house. I sketched with my new acquired Noodler's Peranakan Brown ink made exclusively for our local market.

video on dragon kiln

Fired by Passion: Dragon Kiln Firing - A Journal from phototrails on Vimeo

Thank you Carol for allowing us to post this video produced by her in 2003 for the dragon kiln. All of us look so young then in this old video. This video is so well done that it is probably the only professional piece of information on the heritage of the wood kilns in Singapore.

We are conducting another wood firing today, come and join us. Leave your comments on Thow Kwang Clay Artists.

Sketch Walk this Friday and Saturday

Sketchwalk for the month of May will be held at two separate locations on two separate times:

FIRST LOCATION
Friday, 28 May 2010, 5pm till late.
1. Tia and friends invite you to join them as they do wood firing and sketching at the Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle, Boon Lay area. 5pm till late on Vesak Day, Friday 28 May 2010. There will be a BBQ too (contribution of $5). Please contact Tia at 96968080 for more info. Directions: drop at Boon Lay MRT station, take bus no. 199 to bus stop after Jalan Bahar flyover, walk in along the kampong tarmac road. Lots to sketch along the way - big and small trucks, motorcycles and cars, trees and plants…. then about 10 mins, you will see the very interesting gate…..and POTTERY JUNGLE!!!




SECOND LOCATION
Saturday, 29 May 2010, 9am.
2. Andrew and James will lead another group to sketch at Ghim Moh wet market/hawker center. On saturday morning, 29 May 2010. The place is bustling with people buying they groceries, eating breakfast and selling goods from small makeshift stalls. This old market/hawker place might not be around too much longer so this is a good opportunity to draw it before it is torn down and turned into a modern hawker center. Breakfast can be eaten in between drawing.

To join us, simply meet us at Bouna Vista mrt control station at 9am. We will then begin walking to the market at 9am sharp. If you can’t find us, call Andrew at 91070735.

a visit to PIXAR exhibition

Today 5 lecturers brought about 130 students to visit an unique exhibition entitiled "20 years of Animation - PIXAR" at the Science Centre. The purpose of the field trip is to get the freshmen to draw and Tuesday is the only day of the week that group drawing and sketching are pemitted inside the exhibition hall. I hope students were inspired to sketch their favourite characters. I certainly was motivated to do one on moleskine and a few on scrapbook.

The displays are awesome!

my interview with Veronica Lawlor

This interview with Veronica Lawlor was first published on the website of First International Urban Sketching Symposium at Portland, Oregon. Vernoica and I are the presenters for the symposium.

Veronica Lawlor aka Ronnie, as she is affectionately called, never fails to amaze everyone with her fluid and dancing quality line work with urban landscape, figurative and festive themes. Recently, her May 11 post on Urban Sketchers which she drew New York City from a tall building in Wall Street stunned us with such genius loci, great sense of place and abstract line quality. A true New Yorker, Ronnie's interpretation of the big apple is incredibly filled with rich emotions. She always knows which parts to omit or reduce and what lines to use in all her drawings. I am also impressed with her choice of colours in some of her sketches.

I first knew Ronnie through her work on Urban Sketchers and I am excited to meet her in person during the first Internatioanl Urban Sketching Symposium at Portland this July. Coming from similar background with years of teaching under our belt, I have the following questions for her:





Understand you are one of the founders for Dalvero Academy and you also teach at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. What is your view on the relationship between art and design and how they should compliment each other?

To me, art and design are synonymous. You can’t have a good design without art and I can’t imagine a piece of art without design. As a teacher I love drawing because it reveals the truth of the artist’s own sense of design. Drawing reveals where a student’s strengths lie: fashion, architecture, sculpture, painting, film, illustration, photography, you name it. And then drawing helps them to get there. It’s the tool of the artist and also like a crystal ball to their future.

When I search for “reportage drawings”, your name appears everywhere on the results. What is reportage drawing and why do you think reportage drawing as an art genre is important?

The word reportage comes from the French, meaning ‘the act or process of reporting’. Reportage drawing can be journalistic or descriptive of place and can carry the artist’s opinion. Since it is painted or drawn and not photographed, reportage illustration can take liberties with ‘reality’ in order to be clearer in meaning. It is important to the art genre because it is a direct artistic response to a place or situation, right there on the spot, and it becomes very instinctive. In that it is different from the majority of artistic experience that involves the artist alone in a studio working.

Since there is a direct connection between the artist’s hand, eye and mind, it can be very emotional as well. Reportage is so rewarding for me because I love it as a way to interact with the world and contribute.

You are the author for several books and your works are exhibited in galleries and museums. Can you tell us more and what these achievements mean to you in your role as artist, illustrator and educator?

The gratifying thing about having my work published and in gallery or museum settings is that I am able to reach the public with it. To me, art is always about communication with people. When my drawings of September 11th were exhibited at the Fire Museum in New York City, I had firemen coming up to me with tears in their eyes telling me how emotionally affected they were by seeing them. That kind of emotional connection is such a big part of the reason why I started drawing in the first place. I can be a bit shy at times, but I’m really an extrovert at heart, and drawing allows me to reach out to people who I might otherwise never come in contact with.

You are the only artist to draw, on the spot, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, share with us the emotion and how did you manage to go through the wreckage to do the reportage. Was it tough and how did you recover from it?

The attacks on the World Trade Center were such an unbelievable source of grief for New Yorkers. Many of us (myself included) lost friends or family that day; all of us lost the World Trade Center. I have lived my entire life in New York City; those buildings are alive to me. Every day when I look up and see the Empire State Building and I feel like I’m home. The World Trade Center was the same.

I was in shock when I was making those drawings, but it felt like the right thing to do. Documenting what was going on was a way to work through my emotions, both during and after the attack. Over the next few months I drew and drew everything that was going on. It gave me a purpose and made me feel as if there was something I could contribute in a situation where the reality was that I was powerless over it.






more drawings by Veronica on 911 here

As one of the Board Directors for Urban Sketchers, what do you wish to see at the upcoming Symposium in Portland?

I hope that the symposium will promote the art of drawing on location and bring its practitioners from all over the world together. There’s nothing better than being with a group of people that have the same love that you do. And I hope this symposium will be the beginning of many more!

• Veronica's blog.
• Veronica's website.
• Veronica's drawings.

Tree 78

After a cup of coffee at the near-by food centre, I drove to the carpark behind this block of flats through a narrow driveway. This block of flats reminded me of the 'high density low rise' housing concept in the early days. I believe this carpark was a park before. This sketch was done inside the comfort of my car looking towards a steep slope with the typical orange-red roof art-deco flats on top of the slope at the far end. The rear staircases formed an interesting urban element in this charming old estate called Tiong Bahru.

still kicking and alive

Sorry for the lack of update here. Wood firing is scheduled to be on 28 to 29 May 2010 so I spent most of my time on the potter's wheel and not sketching.

You can visit Pottery Jungle to find out more about the wood firing.

Anyway, here are some pictures on why I was missing from the sketching scence.



More can be found on my clay site here.

old flats where I grew up

I lost my Hero M86 fountain pen. I might have lost it after I did the last sketch. So I used Zig calligraphy pens - black and grey to do the outline of the flats after the watercolours. I quite like the watercolour effect on the yellowish smooth moleskine card surface.

I did a post on my birthplace here. I wanted to sketch places I grew up and schools I studied. Unfortunately the old flats I grew up at Queenstown were demolished but my first home look like the one here. This old neigbourhood at Commonwealth is now the foreign students' hostel as I saw them walking in and out of the flats with backpacks and groceries plastic bags. The railway track is just next to the flats and the train only appeared once as I was sketching. The ants and mosquitos were everywhere that I had to leave early and finish the flat details at home. There must be at least ten mosquitos bites on both of my arms and feet.

I will need to get another fountain pen and I will add a small bottle of insect repellent on my art material list.