Result of Sketchwalk at Holland Village

May Sketchwalk this Saturday at Holland Village

Join us for our upcoming sketchwalk this saturday at Holland Village. Please see map for directions as it
will be a short walk to get there. Drop at Bouna Vista MRT station, cross the overhead bridge, and
follow the red path in the map. Holland Village is located within the blue area. We will meet at the holland village hawker centre at 9.30am. And then take our time sketching around the area till 12.30pm, when we will meet back at the hawker centre.

Points of interest: 

1. holland village's cafes/restaurants. (don't forget the back lanes behind the cafes)

2. the famous magazine stand opposite crystal jade.

3. Chip Bee garden's nice white semi-d houses. (marked with a pink circle)

4. Behind the carpark (on your way there) is the bouna vista swimming pool. It is old and charming. and may be torn down soon. (marked with a green circle)

5. old mosque near the car park.

For food, there is the holland village fried beehood at the hawker centre (if open), provence bakery for good curry buns, cheese balls and toasted sandwiches, daily scoop homemade icecream, and da paolo gastronomy for gelato and heated lasagna/pizza.

note: that the holland village mrt station is NOT open yet.
note: there is a big Artfriend open at bouna vista MRT station (just below) if you want to get any sketching supplies.

Please call Tia at 96968080 or Andrew 91070735 if you can't find us.

my home in the 70s

I sketched my birth place, my first home and now another place I call home when I was slighter older.

Did this sketch of my old home from the public corridor of block 239, Lorong 1 Toa Payoh. My home in the 1970s, block 53 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh was the first high rise public housing flat in Singapore under the 'home ownership' programme. Cannot remember the unit number but we stayed on the 11th storey at the left corner unit. It was quite an unique design with a cylindrical water tank on the roof top. I remember it was painted in green which I'd done here. The pitched roofs and pointed facades were added later which I think the original character of the building block was lost. Oops!

You can see city skyline here, from the left - Concourse, Flyer, Marina Bay Sands to UOB and OCBC buildings. WOW!

Oh yes, the block was visited by The British royal family in the 70s - a significant but forgotten event in our public housing history. Read a very well written post here.

eat eat eat

Eating must be one of the favourite activities of Singaporeans. Any time at the food court, you see people of all ages eating at odd hours. May be they should be sketching rather that eating? This is at Ang Mo Kio Hub at 4pm.

Photos from left to right : The mother and son walked away soon after I sketched them on first photo but second photo showed that I got them in my sketch. The last photo showed the coffee cup left by the lady with the hoody in my sketch. She was reading the newspaper right in front of me.

Esplanade Concert Hall

A sketch before the Saturday concert on a new sketchbook supplied by Book Actually to test out the paper for the bookstore. I started with Lamy Pen and it worked well till my ink dried out so I changed to Hero fountain pen which could not skirt smoothly across the paper resulted in dry, broken strokes. But I am still happy with the end result. Done in 10 mins before the show.

15 x 21 cm, Noodler's black ink

Global Sketchers!

DSC02260, originally uploaded by josu maroto
Luis Ruiz, Gerard Michel and Lapin - excep for Lapin, I am going to meet Luis and Gerard in Lisbon at the 2nd International Urban Sketching Symposium.

Udders ice cream

Weather was too hot and humid so a visit to Udders ice cream was a very good idea on a Sunday afternoon. Testing the paper for Books Actually, a local bookstore. It could not take the coffee splashes well but the end result was still acceptable.

21 x 15 cm Noodler's ink

Tiong Bahru revisited pt 5

Coffee 75
Ink, Watercolours & Coffee
20 x 20cm

Row 78 Ink & Watercolours 20 x 20cm	EngWatt 66 Ink & Watercolours 20 x 20cm

These three pieces are smaller of this series. The coffee stain on the top piece is from Forty Hands Coffee, the popular cafe at Yong Siak Street.

collage of sketches for Apr

the staircases at Tiong Bahru

The unique icon of Tiong Bahru - the rear staircases. This was done on the day I took my day off from the office and sketched with Paul Wang who had returned from Hong Kong for a few days to sketch at Tiong Bahru in preparation for the up coming exhibition. While doing this piece, we met Max, a photographer who stayed at block 82. Three of us talked and shared about the stories of Tiong Bahru. He promised he would send us the photographs he took of us and our sketches.

40 x 20 cm ink, coffee and watercolours.

Tiong Bahru Exhibition 2011

I will exhibit twenty pieces of my work for the up coming exhibition on Tiong Bahru. The date is 1 July 2011 at the White Canvas Gallery. Here are the seventeen pieces. They are all for sale.

If you are interested to buy, please let me know. I can arrange for a preview before the exhibition.

last page of Apr Muji sketchbook

A sketch at the Sunday dinner with my husband at the Cafe Cartel in our East Coast / Siglap neighbourhood. Our children were away - one working in Hong Kong, one visiting Sweden and my youngest son staying at a friend's house over the weekend. We saw so many mothers, young and old with their families at the cafe for the mothers' day celebrations. Cafe Cartel served very good pork ribs with free serving of breads and butter. This sketch is the last page of my April Muji Sketchbook. Can't wait to start the May Muji Sketchbook soon. Coffee splashes from the black coffee served at Cafe Cartel.

26 x 13 cm, ink & coffee.

Tiong Bahru revisited pt 4

Front 78
04 May, 2011
Ink, Watercolours & Salt
40 x 20cm


Coffee 81
29 April, 2011
Ink, Watercolours & Coffee
40 x 20cm

These are some of the last few sketches done in early May for the up coming exhibition from 30 June, 2011. They are for sale. There are nine pieces in this long format of 40 x 20cm. Please visit my flickr site to see all the 20 pieces to be exhibited. Some pictures taken with the students.

Forty Hands at Tiong Bahru

I have done with my sketches for "Tiong Bahru Revisited" exhibition to be held from 30 Jun 2011. Today I brought a group of new design students to Tiong Bahru and I did two sketches on site, one was smaller at 20 x 20cm and the other one larger at 40 x 20cm.

When the sketching session ended, I had my lunch and coffee at Forty Hands after visiting Book Actually in the vicinity. Here is a sketch with a cup of really good coffee!

Tiong Bahru revisited pt 3

Two new sketches in square format 25 x 25 cm. I have six done in this format to be exhibited this year at the White Canvas Gallery. The other four are here :-

Tiong Bahru revisited pt 2 (re-post)

Temple 54
02 April, 2011
Ink & Watercolours
40 x 20cm


Junction 57
02 April, 2011
Graphite & Watercolours
40 x 20cm



Re-post. These are the first two sketches done on 2 April for the up coming exhibition on sketches of Tiong Bahru at the White Canvas Gallery. They are for sale.

Result of Sketchwalk at Redhill

We went to Redhill, the heartland for the April sketchwalk. We had new comers and more lady sketchers this round. I did 3 sketches of different sizes for this morning sketchwalk at Redhill. I arrived very late at around 10.15am due to the heavy rain in the morning. After my breakfast at this coffee shop, I started with the top piece in smaller size to warm up. Elderly folks were everywhere! It reminded me of my childhood at Queenstown. 21 x 15cm, ink & watercolours.

The second piece on the upgraded old flats including block 21 was done in about 30 to 45 mins just in time to rush back to the food center to meet other sketchers at 12.30pm. These are upgraded older flats in Redhill. The architectural style of these flats in the old days was primarily of art-deco features and proportions similar to those found in Tiong Bahru charaterised by its curved balconies and window projections. The semi-curved parapet wall facade could be added later in my view and I think the facade is redundant and very artificial. 40 x 20 cm. Ink & watercolours.

Third piece was done after the session ended at the hawker center. People moved very fast from the tables. A stall was closed on a busy Saturday which was unusual. 26 x 13 cm. Ink on Muji sketchbook.