Painting Leaves

Done this leaves painting using watercolour this week. I think I'll work on it when I'm free. 

 

Mural Art Around Singapore River 2023

I was surprised and delighted to see many mural arts while explore Singapore River this Monday sunny afternoon. There are bright colourful painting that features Singapore history from Sang Nila Utama, Stamford Raffles, Chinese coolies and hardworking Samsui women who worked in the construction industry. Take a look at the street arts below!  

At River Valley road

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Sang Nila Utama at Coleman Bridge

Chinese coolie and Stamford Raffles

Samsui women contributed to Singapore building construction industry.

Mural art at Elgin bridge

Tiger Sculpture at Gardens by the Bay

Saw this gigantic 7m-tall colourful endangered Sumatran Tiger sculpture located at the SG50 lattice Gardens by the Bay last Thursday. This art sculpture is made up of recycled material like portable loos and road dividers. It is created by Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo who aims to raise awareness on global wastage of material and the need to reduce, reuse and recycle. This art sculpture will be on display for the next three years. 

Popiki Dogs at The Cathay

I saw three bright gigantic Balloon Dog art sculptures at Singapore Cathay and they are POPek Red, POPek teal and Peepek yellow. They are designed by London-based artist Whatshisname. 

Watercolour Practice

Since I brought so much watercolour materials, I might as well use them well and improve on watercolour painting techniques. It's quite fun to play and experiment the various watercolour techniques.

I like learning from various youtube videos like Makoccino as her tutorials are easy to follow. 

First time using negative space technique for the green leaves. Not very nice but at least I tried. It's better than doing nothing and get stuck. Aim for progress. The bottom right purple background effect is achieved by sprinkling salt on wet paint. 

 

Happy Holidays

I'm really happy with the long weekend! I spent the holidays catching up on my art assignment with painting and also reading. Really hope I have more time for the art. I'm glad I finally completed the A3 art task. But I think there is still room for improvement and maybe I'll improve in the next few days. Sometimes inspiration comes and I will just sketch and paint. 

This A4 art piece is still in progress.I'll draw and paint a hummingbird to it. 

With only three primary colours and white, you can create many colours!

 

Watercolour Painting- Peony and Fruits

Did some watercolour painting today on peony and fruits- lemon and pumpkin.

Art Store at Tampines Century Square

I've been spending lots of money on art material recently at Art Friend and Popular bookstore. Even though I'm a member of Art Friend, enjoying 10% discount, I still spent a lot. 

Thankfully my kind friend who is also my colleague told me there is an art store at Tampines Century Square level 2, Umistrong Art Hub that also offers art lessons. I went to explore this Thursday and I was elated to see other affordable brands. 

I think it's the first store that sells individual watercolour papers instead of package set. I brought some watercolour papers of different weight to explore. 

Maybe next weekend, I will explore their Suntec City branch which also has a Gallery, studio and retail store. 

Update: Suntec city shop has closed.

Website: https://www.umistrong.com/

They also offer art lessons

You can choose from a wide range of watercolour papers of different weight

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I brought this gold highlighter and the globe sharpener which is quite good.

Art and Life

Recently, I learned about making mud and I was not happy with some of the work and wanted to throw some of the "ugly" work away. Then I recalled a good article I read years ago in 2018 May, 

Singaporean artist, Wee Hong Ling shared the following anecdote that changed her perspective. She attended a workshop conducted by American clay artist who shared that in the first 10 years of his career, he would throw away any art pieces that did not meet his expectation. Later, he realised that he had lost 10 years of information. 

Thus, I'm going to keep these "ugly" pieces and take note of why they turned out the way. Do read the following inspiring article. I hope you find it helpful. 

Time is a finite resource. What do you want to spend your time on? I know I want to spend more time on Art, Design and Reading. 

The Straits Times

When life deals you a curve ball, you can still have a ball

To read more, click here

At one such workshop conducted by American clay artist Jack Troy, she was struck by something he said. In the first 10 years of his career, the artist apparently placed a trash bin next to the kiln each time he unloaded his fired pieces. With a hammer, he would smash anything which did not meet his expectations and throw it into the bin.

 “He said: ‘After a while, I realised I had lost 10 years of information’,” recalls Ms Wee. A light bulb came on in her head when she heard that. “We do the same in our lives. We write off people and things which do not meet our expectations and throw them in the trash bin,” she says. When the realisation struck her that she was not only moulding clay but learning about life, she decided she would work with ceramics after completing her PhD.

“I had friends and neighbours who went to work that day and never came home. It was another wake-up call. If you want to do something you care about, you’d better not waste time. Those people who went to work that day never thought they were not going to come home.” The day she got her PhD in 2005, she threw away all her books, journals and academic papers. “That was the past. I needed more room for my art. If I were going to use those books again, they would be obsolete anyway.”

Making mud- Some dark and some bright- representing moments of life with bad and good. 

Watercolour background using salt and paper towel

Exploring and Experimenting Watercolour Painting

Today is Good Friday, a public holiday in Singapore. I spent the day reading U magazine and exploring and experimenting landscape watercolour painting by learning from youtube videos. I realised that normal masking tape works as well as the painting tape. Also one needs to really work at a faster pace for watercolour painting else you can't lift the paint if the paint is dry. 

I'm quite happy with today painting but maybe I can add more details when I'm free. I'm looking forward to tomorrow art lesson. 

I reworked on earlier painting today too.

Playing with translucent painting

 

Watercolour Painting- Nature

I love watercolour painting as it gives a dreamy and translucent effect. Finally I started to practise watercolour painting today. I'm not very happy with the colour of the trees scenery and cactus. I have to practise more to get the colour right and dreamy effects.  

Update

I was not very happy with earlier work so today I painted again to improve the painting. Does it look better now?  

Updated watercolour painting today