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Before deciding on doing this, I was about to do another painting. Don’t know why while I was in the shower, I keep ‘seeing’ this old clock in my head, the vision was so vivid and the weird thing was that I hardly paid any attention to it, even though it was on the wall right on top of my working table.

I immediately went to my work room and took it down, with the help of my daughter, started taking pictures of it using only my mobile. I took it at several angle, making sure I get the exact picture as visioned.
The first hurdle was the oval shape of the clock face, just could not seem to get it quite right until my dear friend, Barbara, told me about the bendable ruler. It helped a bit.

The numbers were tough because I could not trace it nor do the grid. I have to do

Tranquilness, peace…

is what I am portraying from this piece. I was fascinated by rock pebbles after my previous piece, Stillness Speaks. I find doing rock pebbles calms me. It gave me freedom to play with textures and colours. Rocks pebbles are not rigid in forms and textures, there is no definite definitions to paint a rock, I just let my eyes and hand do the work.

Here is the reference photo that I took during my short holiday break in the island of Langkawi. I was skimming by the beach, looking for inspiration when I happened to look down and saw these beauties. It was on very shallow water surrounded by huge rocks. Immediately, I know what my next painting will be. The ripples of the flowing water makes everything look so serene.

It is obvious to see that my painting does not look exactly like

“Stillness Speaks” 42x30cm, 300gm hp/wc paper. FC poly cps.
This idea came by when I was out of inspirations. I have taken quite a number of pretty decent reference photos before this but as usual, after a few days, those pictures that I took didn’t appeal to me.

I was bumped out of ideas. I was like a zombie, mopping around the house like a lifeless soul. So I told myself, just relax, take a break, watch stupid movies on TV, then perhaps something may come up.

One fine day (after almost 1 week in zombie mode), while doing my routine house chores, I saw this set up on one of my tiny balcony (see ref. picture) that an idea suddenly came about. The whole set up gave me a sense of calmness. I started to re-arrange the rocks, using my mobile phone, tried to capture the best angle

I have always love delicate English roses teacups, more like looking at it rather than own one.

Probably because I know I will be so afraid to use them. So when I saw this photo of the teacup (taken by Maureen Wong, our close family friend, on WhatsApp.) I knew, I MUST paint this and it will be a perfect gift for her. Her family have been, and still are very close to my parents. They have brought joy and much laughter to my mom and dad, were always there through good and bad times. They are  family to us.

So, to show how much I appreciates them, I decided to paint this, since this set of tea cup is hers,  it will be even more meaningful.

I have wanted to do it on a black paper but afraid that the whites will not look

A very different type of work compared to my usual pieces. As you can see from my previous work, I like to do mainly still life or scene/picture with stories. These birds were a request by a repeated client  as commissioned pieces, a gift to her mother this coming Mother’s day in May 2014.

She had suggested earlier last year that I should be doing birds as part of my work as they are quite a lot of birds lovers in this part of the world, especially if they are colourful ones. But I was just not interested enough to do it as part of my collection.

So, one fine day, after much thought & persuasion from her, plus her plight to do something special for her mum, I gave in.  She recalled that her mother had told her it’s auspicious to have

This is something very different from my usual work. I was intrigued by this scene I saw in town.

Initially, that cobalt blue captured my eyes, didn’t give it a second thought. But I don’t know what made me took a second look, a long second look.

The whole scene seemed to speak to me. Suddenly my surroundings became so still, so quiet. My focus was then on that chair. It can be eerie, come to think of it, but for some reason, this chair suddenly depict a sense of the emptiness.

The solitary chair, the leg stool, the gloomy background & the striking gaudy picture frame…… It somehow represent my feeling after the departure of my beloved father. The chair & stool represents emptiness left by my dad in my life. The blue represents my feeling of losing him. The gaudy picture is my

Guess what? The toughest part of this painting is the title! Funny titles came to head before I even started it, “Ave Maria”, “Prayers”. “Amen”….. Nah! Way to religious!

The painting itself speaks volumes, don’t need to double it…. right?? So, I think, while sketching, my mom’s hands, and she’s always praying, for us, so voila, that’s it! A mother’s prayer! O.K., done!

This reference photo was taken using my Tab when my dad was hospitalised, the same day when I took the reference picture “To have and to hold…” You can see him at the background. It took me quite sometime to decide to paint this as the pain of missing him is still raw.

After completing “Mr. Macho”, I came back to this. Well, I told myself, just do it. And I did! Glad I did!

This time around, no

 I just could not resist painting this guy. He with his many looks & moods.

This photo was taken by my daughter when Spike (yes, Mr. Macho’s name), just woke up from a nap. She aimed the camera at him and look what a haughty expression he gave! Didn’t even flinch, a “I don’t give a damn” attitude. That’s a real bully (short for Bulldog).

I did my first portrait of him back in early 2013. You can see the difference in the details. As I have only started to pick up coloured pencils in March 2013, so Spike, the bully, turned out not too bad. It won me the votes from Colored Pencil Artists & Lovers on Facebook for the August 2013 challenge, winner of the beginner category. Something I’m so proud of. And to add to that, I’ve also won a set of beautiful 48 Bruynzeel design

I was invited to join this closed group on facebook by Mr. Justin DancingHawk (yup, that’s his name alright!) 2 months ago. It was an honour to be invited because, to be invited, he will screen through the work of the recommended artists, and if he thinks that you work is good enough, only then, you’ll be added to the group.

This group is called Go APE for ART, for and of artists, dedicated to stepping up and out to change the world we live in through our donations of art works, focused on the orangutans, in support of wildlife conservation, specifically the OrangUtan Protection Foundationhttp://opf.org/

The requirement after accepting the invitation is a MUST to produce an orangutan’s artpiece, no restrictions of media, it can be anything, as long as it’s an art piece. Sales of the Orangutan art will be donated in FULL to the Foundation to assist in

How would I know that this will be the last time that my dear father would pose for me….

Not long after I finished up this piece, he passed away. He never left the hospital, after a month and half stay. It’s a consolation to me that he saw this finished piece and he said that he’s amazed that I could paint his hand exactly like his plus the tattoo too, that remark meant so much for me and I know that he’s proud that I possessed his talent for art, which he had taught and encouraged me since I was in my early teens.

I had the inspiration to do a series of paintings depicting hands of various ages and poses since I started my coloured pencil paintings. The idea was shelved because I could not get good referrals. I want it to be my own composition