Painting the final series was an ode to my high school days toiling away in the art studio: cracking open the bottle of turpentine, unscrewing the caps of my oil paints, swirling my paintbrushes in the paint. It had been a while since I painted a large canvas, the last large-scale painting project I had undertaken being three years ago. Needless to say, it was therapeutic returning to my days painting the hours away for hours, all while doing it in the desire to record my grandfather’s past and paint the buildings through the eyes he had designing and constructing them.
My painting process followed a rather standard three-step approach:
Drawing the composition
Painting a wash for the base layer
Painting the composition
Three-step process from Left to Right
I decided to use oils for my paintings not only because of my familiarity with the medium and its versatility and slow drying allowing for continuous work over days but also as an ode to the history of art in Singapore. Oil was the medium used by the Nanyang artists during the formative years of the nation, as a way of integrating western art materials with eastern art painting techniques to depict local scenes. Today, I use oil and combined it with the architectural techniques of my grandfather to depict Singaporean architecture.
Each painting tells a story of the architecture it depicts, and I’ve attempted to articulate the narrative of each painting below in the order in which I painted them. Feel free to peruse, and read my train of thought lying behind each composition.
Mandai Crematorium
The building rests upon an uneven surface, its terraced layout built upon a sequenced structure that allows one the navigate the spaces that rise above and lay below. One ventures through the silent spaces of Mandai Crematorium, mourning the lives lost as one bids a final farewell, releasing their loved one into a world beyond that cannot be seen by the human eye. Into an unknown, that floats beyond the crematorium, but one lies in peace knowing their beloved has journeyed forth to a better place.
Bukit Merah Swimming Complex
A quaint structure with pools that glisten under the golden sun, its brick red tiles glowing against the calm blue of the pools. Appearing as a friendly pool within the neighbourhood, Bukit Merah Swimming Complex welcomes its visitors with a sense of familiarity, its simple charm only interrupted perhaps by the single modern floodlight providing a sense of nostalgia to the landscape of post-independent Singapore fifty years ago.
MND Building
Monumental is only one of many words to describe such a space. The MND Building stands tall within the landscape of Tanjong Pagar, the deep blue of the buildings almost challenging the bright blue sky surrounding it. Yet the building does not stand distant and aloof from those who pass it – its entryway brings the sky closer to the ground, flooding the space with streams of blue sun rays, allowing one to soak in the aura of the building as one makes their way into it.
Yishun Stadium
The first pillarless stadium of Singapore, Yishun Stadium’s marvellous cantilever structure revolutionised the architecture of sports stadiums in the nation. One feels the tension of the cantilevers that hold up the roof, the support structures below providing support through compression. As one sits in the stadium, one feels safe knowing that the pull above will not give way, the sky being the limit for the strength of the wire cables.
Bishan
A simplified map definitely does not do justice to the hours, months and years it took to design the town. And much like how the town continues to develop, this painting remains a work in progress as one can see how the landscape has changed vastly in the present day – the rectangles have increased in number, changed in shapes and increased in the diversity of colours.
Home
A minimalist view of my home
is perhaps the last approach I had expected to employ in portraying a place so rich in history. Yet upon concluding this painting and reflecting upon the finished product, I realised how this depiction of the house perhaps serves as an ode to its first existence in time fresh from being redesigned and renovated by my grandfather, and how it waits to be filled with the history and narratives of the generations that will inhabit its space.
Katong Swimming Complex
Katong Swimming Complex presents more than meets the eye – a journey past the laned pool and dive into the well to discover the wonders of red and blue parasols, iridescent animal fountains and glistening children’s swimming pool. The complex creates an escape from reality built upon nostalgia for the past, its modern form closely mirroring its original existence decades ago, the same animal fountains beaming with joy.