EAT, another food place

lunch at EAT., where they serve local noodles called Mee Pok at affordable price scattered at shopping malls in a set with a cup of coffee or tea. Cheap and good food at S$4.00 per set with a bowl of noodles and a cup of coffee.

Toa Payoh Bus Interchange

We are urban sketching for a book project about Singapore neighbourhoods. I was assigned to sketch the bus interchange under group 5. Toa Payoh has the first air-conditioning bus interchange which is connected directly to MRT station and North South Line. It is located within the Housing Development Board Hub (HDB Hub) which also house the HDB corporate offices and HDB sale office and sale gallery.

The bus interchange is of course full of buses and passengers. It was not a very interesting subject but I soon enjoyed observing the moving buses and people around me.

May Sketchwalk at Toa Payoh

DATE: 26th MAY 2012

TIME: 930AM - 1230PM

MEETING POINT: Old Chang Kee outside the Toa Payoh MRT stn (see map)

END POINT: Same as meeting point at 12.30pm for show and tell.

This sketchwalk will be a bit special.

Epigram, a really good design company, will be working with us to come up with a series of books written/designed by them and drawn entirely by us. These books will focus on various neighbourhoods in Singapore. One book for each neighbourhood. In a way, it will be a sequel to our Urbansketchers Singapore book with URA. This first book by Epigram will be about Toa Payoh. We will hand out a map to you this Saturday morning with target spots marked. You will have to split yourselves up, treat it like a scavenger hunt, go out and find those spots, and draw them the best you can.

Only the best drawings will be featured in the book. Epigram will be curating and deciding what goes in. If your drawing makes it into the book, you will be given 1 complimentary copy + 40% off if you buy an additional book from them. If they pick 3 or more drawing from you, you will get 2 complimentary copies. That is all. No royalties, just to be clear. You will be credited. And you will keep the full copyrights to your own work. Epigram will bear the full cost of the printing and distribution, as well as handle the writing, designing, and researching the good locations to cover in each neighbourhood. Our part is to just do what we do best, sketching on location.

If your drawing does not make it into the book, no stress, you can always try again the next month. If you don't wish to submit your work, it is fine too. Just join us for sketchwalk as per normal and enjoy yourself.

We will need 50-60 drawings for each book. And we will have about 50 spots to cover so we will be splitting the Toa Payoh into 2 sessions. This saturday, we will be covering the Toa Payoh central area, the Sports complex and some other areas nearby. Spots to cover may include famous stalls, buildings, and other iconic locations in the neighbourhood. It will be clearer when you get the map.

We don't want all of you drawing the same angle and same scene. So please spread out and capture fresh angles that others are not doing. 2 or 3 sketchers can do the same scene but that will mean only 1 or 2 will get chosen.

We want a book that captures the feel and essence of Toa Payoh. It's an intimate look at Toa Payoh, so we encourage you to capture people, cats, dogs, signboards, views from higher levels, an old keymaker, ANYTHING that captures the life in Toa Payoh and what makes Toa Payoh, Toa Payoh. We are not restricted to buildings since this is not a URA book. You are also welcomed to come down between sketchwalks to cover more spots on your own time.

Oh, if you are new to the group, yes, you can submit your work just like the rest of us.

1) All pictures need to be scanned hi-res 350dpi (for A5 and bigger drawings). If your picture is smaller (eg.A6), scan it at 600dpi so it can be blown up further. 

2) Save them in .jpg format. 

3) Upload them to using WeTransfer or YouSendIt (They are free large file transfer services)

4) Send them to jocelyn@epigrambooks.sg.

If you don't own a scanner, you can hand me or Zaihan the originals after the sketchwalk. But please note your name and number on the back. We will scan them and return them to you. 

If you have any questions, you can call me, Andrew at 91070735.
Let's do our best, have fun and get this book series going! See you this saturday!

$uper $ingapore $ale Exhibition at ION Art Gallery

The exhibition, scheduled to coincide with the start of the annual Great Singapore Sale, aims to bring relevancy to the lifestyles of the general public. Organized by Galerie Sogan & Art, the exhibition features works by the popular Urban Sketchers Singapore, which include Tia Boon Sim, Paul Wang, Dengcoy Miel and Don Low among others. Three Singapore women artists, Xin Xiaochang, Sarah Choo and Guo Yixiu will also participate. And in line with the spirit of the actual sale event, which attracts guests from around the region, the gallery is also inviting and established Indonesian fashion photographer, Marsio Juwono; along with two Filipino artists, Anton Del Castilo and Oscar Floirendo, renowned for their three-dimensional works. Using familiar everyday scenes in their art, the artists share their views on living in a society full of material excesses. Inspired by their love for shopping and other personal experiences, the artists weave their observations and present a commentary of Singapore’s rising consumerism in a funny, narrative, expressive, amusing, sarcastic but light-hearted manner. Exhibition runs through 3 June, 2012.

Come and be my guests! See you!

Sunday dinner

This make-shift food center has a popular Chinese food stall called "Hong Kong Street Chun Tat Kee" at Joo Chiat Place. Their signature dishes are crab mee hoon, XO fish soup and many other dishes. Yummy!

Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital is a private community hospital funded by donations from the public. It has been around for one hundred years. The 99-year leased land had just been surrendered back to the government and first thing the hospital lost is to surrender part of the land back to the land office while the main hospital block together with 3 single-storey blocks are to be given temporary occupation license to be able to continue with their operation - that is to provide medical health care to the lower income group and the needy. Many of the patients here are either abandoned by the families or are sick and aged who are with the hospital for as long as 20 to 30 years.

This block within the hospital compound is to be surrendered soon to the government. I hope it can be retained or converted to something to respond to the character of the building design. The huge staircase is very attractive. The vents are to allow natural ventilation which is very rare in the new design.

Spree n Sip

I am taking part in a visual art group exhibition on material consumerism called "$uper $ingapore $ale" presented by Galerie Sogan $ Art from 22 May to 2 Jun 2012 at ION Art Gallery.

People are surprised at what I paint when I am not urban sketching on locations. The title of this painting is "Spree n Sip". It is an attempt to create a humourous figurative narrative with a whimsical approach in common objects, places and people in our highly materialistic, hustling and bustling world that is dominated by high fashion luxury acquisition. Playful, frisky, affluent and well-endowed people are relaxed and find pleasure in a comfortable brightly lit cafe or restaurant enjoying food, wine, desert and coffee after a satisfying shopping spree.

Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 48”

Loola'a at Esplanade

Loola's by Awfully Chocolate is the newest restaurant at Esplanade specialising in "breakfast, braise and breads". The restaurant location used to be a Japanese restaurant that I frequented a few times before the shows at either the Concert Hall or the Theatre. The fish I ordered at Loola's was really good but the price is a little on the high side. Cost of living in Singapore is going up and up.

My sketch on TimeOut Singapore

Celine Asril rounds up eight of the city’s best new cafés, with illustrations by Urban Sketchers Singapore. My sketch on Kooka Cafe at Purvis Street is featured. It also appeared on the May TimeOut Magazine in Print. Must go and get a copy.

The link is here.

lunch

Food Palace at Tampines Central Community Centre. Although people came and went at this food court, it was considered quite empty at lunch hours. Sketching helps to keep my sanity when the workload at the office is getting ridiculously heavy. Sigh!

Getting used to Noodler's Flexi Fountain Pen although the ink flow is inconsistent at times.

St Mary Church, Hong Kong

St. Marys Church is just opposite St.Paul Hospital in the cluster of churches and schools near Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. The churches, schools and hospitals grew out of the caring activities undertaken by the Sisters of the Roman Catholic Christian order St. Paul de Chartres for the poor and underprivileged of the Wan Chai and Happy Valley areas of Hong Kong Island.

Hong Kong

I am now a proud grandmother of Nicole Lee, a lovely pretty baby girl born in Hong Kong on 1 May, 2012 - Labour Day Holiday. We flew to Hong Kong over the weekend to visit the baby and her parents. I did this sketch from my son's 37th floor apartment at Belcher's Hill in Hong Kong. Tall buildings and high mountains dwarfed the long and winding elevated roads. There was a small balcony but it was really windy so I stayed indoor and sketched this view while the Nicole was sleeping all this while.

This sketch was done on the handmade sketchbook by Ketta Linhares whom I met in Lisbon, Portugal in July 2011. Her sketchbooks are on sale here.

budget flight

On my way to and fro Hong Kong. It was the first time that my husband and I were taking Tiger Airways from Budget Terminal. The experience was quite pleasant. We paid for food and drink on the plane.

kopitiam at budget terminal

Done with Noodler's flexi fountain pen but the ink was not flowing smoothly, that explained the big ink blot which I had to work around it. The seat of kopitiam at budget terminal was quite comfortable. I felt I was in Philippines since there were Filipinos everywhere while sitting there finishing this sketch.

prawn noodle lunch

Last Friday, I had a flight to catch in the evening to Hong Kong. Before I went home to pack, I had lunch at this famous prawn noodle stall at Thai Thong Crescent in McPherson area. I sketched the same view before. At that time, the tall apartments were under construction. The overhead cables were gone too. The old sketch was done on Moleskine and you can see it on the left.