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atemporal/eɪˈtɛmp(ə)r(ə)l : existing or considered without relation to time.

I am always fascinated by trees, especially the very old ones. I can just stand by it and imagine all kinds of scenes and era it had witnessed and been through. Even long after we are gone, these trees, if not destroyed by humans, remained, unaffected by time.

“When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life. Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung

These words could not have been truer. Especially with my state of mind before I decided to create this piece.

In December 2021, for the whole month, I was extremely busy socialising, attending art and talk events. Everything seemed to happen within very short notice after the long Covid lockdown. Galleries and social events went out full force, trying to make up lost times.

Being more towards an introvert (Oh, I can socialise well if need to but not that often), it was all quite too much for me. I felt lost and was pretty emotionally ‘disarrayed’. It was too much for me. Mentally exhausted.

This particular reference photo was taken in 2019, when I was preparing for my first solo exhibition. I decided not to use it because

Well, 2021 was a continuation of 2020, I meant the Covid-19. We had another lockdown early this year because of the pandemic, (again!!), but people are better prepared this time. We were not as clueless as last year.

For me, was work as usual. A tad slow on producing new artworks after my solo exhibition last year. I guess, I am taking it easy after months of crazy rush to complete 17 new and big artworks.

As I am writing this, it is already the 30th of December, just two more days before we get to 2022.

While I was slow in producing new artworks, I was actually pretty occupied with other art related work.

Early this year, I was commissioned to do a portrait of a deity. Yup, you read right.

“Mazu” – Deity of Seafarers, Taiwan.

In April, this portrait of “Mazu” -Deity of Seaferers https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_(goddess) was offered by a dear friend in

A bit of an odd subject, with these onions. Rotten onions, to be exact.

This came by unexpectedly. I did not intentionally picked this subject matter, I think it chose me instead.

I have not been cooking as often as I would like to lately, so some perishable stuffs tend to rot away. For instance, these 3 red onions.

Strangely, when I was about to dump them into the bin, something held me back. My mind went “Hang on, put it aside for a couple of days and see what happened”.

By that, I definitely don’t have any intention to use them for any cooking for sure. Perhaps a painting of it?? So I left them on that ledge for about 2 weeks and warned everyone in house to not touch nor move them, hubby included.

I was dilly dallying before I realised how long the shoots have grown. And the colours!! The

Looking at this, I am quite sure many of you may wondered why I picked this subject matter. Eaten corn cobs???

Why?

Well, let me tell you the story…

Firstly, let me tell you that this subject was not planned. Never crossed my mind to ever want to draw corns, what more, eaten corn cobs. Come to think of it, it is quite yucky to want to draw an eaten corn cob.

One weekend during the covid lockdown, I got so bored of cooking and decided to steam some corns for lunch. While we, the husband, the daughter and myself were eating it, I noticed something pretty fascinating.

I was staring at the both of them and really observed how they ate their corns. It was messy!! I thought there is only one way of eating corns on the cob, by eating each and every kernel!

But not them.

Excitingly but calmly….., I

All these, I really could not asked for more and for that, I am thankful, every day of my life. One of the most valuable lesson I have learned in life is to always look towards the positivity in everything, no matter how dreadful it may be. Here’s wishing each and everyone of you a Happy 2021!

Now, this is a very intimidating piece, something that I was not quite confident working on. The reason? This person happens to be my husband, who happens to be an architect AND architects are…. extremely fussy! There, I have said it.

Because of his passion, I was exposed to the world of architecture and became quite familiar with most architectural terms. I can be quite a good ‘critique’ when it comes to building designs (Ahem! Just saying..)  To him, every little detail counts, nothing escape his scrutiny and at times, that can be a real pain (you know where) .

My first hand experience ‘working’ with him was when we were renovating our house a few years back. Oh boy, really drove me up the wall with his obsession with every little detail. But then, it was a good thing because it seemed to have rubbed off on me and it shows in

Treasure trove, literally means “treasure that has been found”. The term treasure trove is often used metaphorically to mean a “valuable find”, and hence a source of treasure, or a reserve or repository of valuable things. The term is also often used metaphorically.– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove

Now this, may not be considered as treasures to many. BUT to me, it brought out troves of loving memories that I had of my childhood.

My late father was a handyman. There was nothing he could not repair around the house. He had this heavy duty military type toolbox where all his previous tools were kept inside. He made sure to keep every tool well oiled and in good working conditions. Anybody who uses it without putting it back where it belong, will be given a good lashing. That was how precious those tools were to him.

I was trained by him to recognised each and every tool in that box.

I have always been a dog person. So for me to paint a cat, is something I myself would never think of doing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all kinds of animals, cats included. Throughout my whole life, dogs have always been my preferred pets and I have to admit that I do feel a wee bit uncomfortable being close to cats. One of reason is that they are so tiny, fragile and aloof. So very different compared to dogs.

So what made me do this? Several of my friends thought it was a commissioned piece, which is was not.

Now, do you believe in serendipity? Chance encounters? I do, always have. And this is one good example.

I went to a friend’s house, who is a musician and also a cat lover (they have 3!), with the intention to take some photos of musical instruments for future work references. It so happened

The last portrait I did was way back in 2013 and it was of my late father. He suggested that I should draw an elderly person with lots of character in the face. Which translated to lots of wrinkles and lines.

At that time, I was quite a freshie in art and I recalled telling him where am I to find one. Even if I found one, I will be too shy to take a photo of that person. In the end, he did me a favour and posed for me, scrunching up his face to produce as much wrinkles as possible (that’s how funny he was).  A couple of moths after I have completed his portrait, he left us. It was the most devastating time of my life and I have not done anymore portraits until now.

Stand Back 200ft (2013)

So now, what made me paint this particular portrait?