Gift to India

On 26 Feb, 2018, my painting of Uddandarayunipalem, one of the 29 villages in Andhra Pradesh was presented to Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of AP by S. Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore. Thanks to Temasek Polytechnic, my institution and MTI for the opportunity and my fellow sketchers who were with me on this fun, unforgettable and memorable sketching trip to India.

The original work is here.

Feb Sketchwalk at Pang Sua Pond

February sketchwalk 2018 at a totally new location right in the heartland. Its Pang Sua Pond at Bukit Panjang all the way to the west of Singapore. I like it that the pond or wetland is next to the swimming complex and the community centre connected by an overhead bridge to the multi storey carpark, Bukit Panjang Plaza where I can find NTUC finest, food and shops.

"This is in fact the second-largest man-made floating wetland in Singapore," said PUB's chief sustainability officer Tan Nguan Sen. "The floating wetland has a few benefits. The plants will absorb the nutrients from the water and helps improve the water quality in the pond. And the floating wetland is a very good outdoor classroom for students and residents to learn about how you can use plants to treat the water."

The pond was built in the 1990s and serves as a stormwater collection pond. It takes in rainwater runoff from the surrounding areas, which is then pumped to the Upper Seletar Reservoir for storage and treatment.

Read more at www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/revamped-pang-sua-...

It's a Wrap!

It's a wrap for this semester teaching. I am now with International Relations that runs an academic centre called Centre for TransCultural Studies. CTS offers very diversed languages and cultural subjects for all students to choose as a "Cross Disciplinary Subject". Here are two out of five groups of my classes with students from very diversed background. We have Malays, Indians, Eurasians, Cambodians, Burmese, Arabs, Philippinas and also a British student in my classes. They are making me feel energetic and young again.

Rob's in Town

Rob Sketcherman from Hong Kong is in town for a workshop under STAR of MOE, we met up with him on a regular sketchwalk by a small group of sketchers last Saturday at Yan Kit Road near Tanjong Pagar. It was a windy and cool day that we had fun chatting, sketching, catching up and lots of photos taking at a very cool cafe called Essen just next to Pinnacle.

A Quick Pose

George has lost weight and he does look younger now. This sketch of him looks ever younger with my few very quick lines. I also got him to sign on the sketch.

The Same Lady

I sketch this same big lady for a few times at the same coffee shop. She is not wearing her glasses now so I think she must have been going through an eye operation recently. She was in my stories and sketches here and here.

This Afternoon Lunch at An Shun

Today's lunch at my favourite fish soup stall at Toa Payoh, also the meeting place for so many taxi drivers. The taxis will take up almost all the nearest parking lots near to the coffee shop that sells famous fish soup, yong tau foo, chicken rice and claypot laksa.

Chinese New Year decorations are easy to spot at heartland coffee shop like this one.

Simpang Bedok

Lunch at my favourite noodles shop at Simpang Bedok. This building called Bedok Market Place on the left in my sketch opposite the shop used to be an avant-garde building designed by local architect Tang Guan Bee for Far East Organisation. It is now slowly transformed into "creative culinary stalls" that are that your typical hawkers.

Splashes and Washes again

In the mood of splashes and washes again, this time more lines and dots by brushes.

Splashes and Washes

Splashes and washes only done at a spur of the moment, the truth is my pen had no ink.

Opposite Indian Heritage Centre

This was the second sketch at Little India just opposite Indian Heritage Centre at Clive Street. Added colours later. There were so many tourists and big coaches came and went while I did this sketch.

Master Class at Little India

Last Saturday, I did a 5 to 8 mins demo to a group of Master Class students from LaSalle College of the Arts. It was a very hot day but it also drizzled for a while and I just sat there on the same spot. I thought it was my sweat dripping from my forehead. It was a fun outing!

At the Spur of the Moment

This sketch is after a sketch done in Little India. I did this at a spur of the moment at home after a long day at work and too much negative energy waiting to be released. That moment really transformed negative energy to positive energy.

Cleaning the Palette

Cleaning the palette, so not to waste the colours I did this sketch after another sketch on Tiong Bahru. Now my palette is clean. This sketch out of a spur moment brought back fond memories when I had exhibition for consecutive two years in 2011 and 2012. It was captured by the media at that time with my sketch on the article. You can see more Tiong Bahru sketches at Tiong Bahru Sketches

First Sketchwalk of the Year

It is customary for Urban Sketchers Singapore to visit Chinatown near Chinese New Year for our sketchwalk. It was a huge turn-out for this first sketchwalk of the year. This year it will be year of the dog and the dog sculptures are up already at Chinatown. The are few dogs and they are very skinny. Some said they look more like fox.

We were lucky to find a cool spot next to the main road to sketch. I also had a chance to witness how the organiser placed the road barricades a day before and pushed them all the way out to re-direct the traffic just after lunchtime. A man was also seen to carry a sign that read "Please move on when pedestrain crossing is green" It should be spelled as pedestrian.

People are working hard for the Chinatown light up on this night for preparation of Chinese New Year. Hopefully there will be no rain!

Let's splash

Let's splash some colours on a new watercolour paper that was given to me but not touched for a long time. I believe it is Arches paper. I ended up sketching a sketch on Marina Bay Sands. Love the ink and watercolours flow on the paper. I found it very deliberating after completing it.

Malaysian Food Street at Sentosa

This is the first time I visited Malaysian Food Street at Sentosa, so much food to choose from and really spoilt for choice! Finally I decided to eat the Chay Keow Teow. As I did the sketch, I noticed there was another stall selling Chay Keow Kok, which was what we called carrot cake in Singapore. This sketch is on the first page of a long Moleskin Japanese Album Large.

We Draw Amaravati Together

Happy New Year 2018!

I did a video on my recent sketches on India. I was with my sketcher friends from 08 - 15 Dec 2017 to Vijayawada and Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh on a project called "We Sketch Amaravati Together".

Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the seventh-largest state in India covering an area of 162970 sq km. As per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth-largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. Amaravati has 29 villages and it will be the brand new capital city for Andhra Pradesh under the vision of N Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also the President of Telugu Desam Party and Member of Legislative Assembly, Kuppam.

Amaravati, is envisioned to be a city of world-class standards with a vision of increasing Andhra Pradesh’s prominence in the world. For a start, Construction of the seed capital development area — covering 16.7 sq km and comprising the AP Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, High Court, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, quarters for the ministers and officials, and the township for government officials had already started.

Our sketching trip is fully sponsored by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore and our mission is to sketch the existing 29 villages in Amaravati to help capture the current heritage and culture before the new city is built.

Battling Withdrawal Syndrome

I am probably having withdrawal syndrome from the India trip. I just splashed and added lines and colours to a very old watercolour paper. I did feel a little better after completing the sketch at home.

Heartland Seniors

Heartland seniors, also frequent customers at Hua Hua Eating House, Marine Parade.

Day Seven - 14 Dec 2017

It was free and easy on day seven as we would be leaving for airport in the evening at around 5:30pm to catch a 8:10pm flight from Vijayawada Airport to Bengaluru Airport then take the Singapore Airline flight back to Singapore. I was on an earlier hotel check-out time at 12 and I also had a some discomfort in the stomach so I did not go out in the car to sketch the Krisna River or the city for the last time. Those who were on 3:00pm check-out time did that. After the hotel check-out, we went shopping for some gifts and kurta blouse for me and shirts for my son. I came back to the hotel and managed to do this sketch inside the hotel lobby looking out to the street from the corner glass panel. It was also the last sketch in the Seawhite Conertina Sketchbook. Perfect!

Day Six Afternoon

38m high sitting Buddha in dhyana position at Dhyana Buddha Park, Amaravathi, Andhra Pradesh, India.

The Buddha statue was commissioned in 2003 and completed in 2015. The statue has a museum in the base underneath it, which consists of sculptures depicting scenes with Buddhist significance, most modern copies of the original reliefs from the Amaravathi Mahachaitya stupa which are now in museums around India and the world. The eight pillars signifies path for salvation followed by Buddha, four zones for noble truths and five ayaka pillars for stages of life. Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation is going to complete the Theme Park in front of the statue which is said to be opened for the public in 2018.