Upper Weld Road, Little India, Singapore

Molotow Acrylics Markers

A group of watercolour enthusiasts comprising of amateurs and veteran painters are meeting on Tuesday and Thursday on a weekly basis to paint in watercolour. Every painting session will begin with breakfast and end with lunch, starting from about 9.30am and ending 12.30pm. I joined them once in a while to paint and to network. The core group of people are mainly men and women in their  60s. Today they were painting at Little India, one of my favourite location to paint because of the grittiness and colours of the place. We chose to settle at corner junction of Dunlop Street and Perak Road, a 4-way junction with shophouses in every direction.



The pointy building is a newly opened Little India Heritage Center that took about a year and a half to build. The street in front of it is closed for traffic now so it is a good place to sit and sketch. When the street gets busy, you would be blocked by trucks stopping to load and unload their goods. However my favourite junction is show on the pix above. Right below the squarish building is a shop selling all kinds of vegetables. Up close you will be mesmerised by the colours.


I painted on a quarter sheet hot pressed watercolour paper (Arches) because I have some in my bag. I would prefer cold press for the paper texture. The photograph below shows my setup. Let me recall what I forgot to bring, my rag. I was left with using a soggy paper towel throughout the painting session.





We have Miachel, Peng Koon, and Mr Hoe in the picture. A happy bunch!

Mount Faber is only about 105m in height but it provides a beautiful panoramic view of the southern parts of Singapore. It is also part of Singapore's southern ridges that run from Mt. Faber and ends at West Coast Park. A 9km network of trails, bridges and walkways have been built to link these ridges. I live in the Telok Blangah Heights area which is also part of the southern ridges. For that I applaud my government and National Parks, an agency that manages the country's open spaces, and natural conservation areas.
My favourite part of Mt Faber is, it overlooks a fairly dense tropical rain forest with thick undergrowth over its slopes. Tall trees line the winding roads that lead up to the peak. These roads provide access for tour buses and vehicles to the cable car station located at the peak. Tourists can take a cable car ride to Sentosa island where Universal Studios is. 

The West Coast of Singapore, like the East Coast was created out of reclaimed land back in the 70s. However unlike the East Coast, the West Coast remains predominantly an industrial area, and quite sparsely populated with residences. A local university can be found there too. I love the West Coast Park because it overlooks an oil refinery, a dock for ship repair, a private dock for yachts and sail boats, a port and a dingy looking jetty. Out in the sea, tug boats and fishing boats are moored so they become subjects for painting. Giant cargo ships would sometimes pass by a distant away. There are plenty to draw and paint. I came here several times now and I really love it. Besides, if I come in the morning on a weekday, the area is usually quiet and empty. Not many places in Singapore are than tranquil.


There are many park benches that are sheltered so I could actually paint in the shade. There is also a constant breeze so it is pretty comfortable, just that the paint tends to dry up too fast.

18 Nov 2015

I coud sit here all day watching the boats bobbing up and down.


On the left of the coast is an area where some small boats are moored on the beach and are being repaired. I am surprised to see such a place could even exist without the government officials checking on them.


This my plein air setup. I was painting with watercolour. A mix of different paints from different brands. So far my palette tray is still working very well  as you can see I have a fairly large palette and a water container resting on it quite sturdily. My only complain is, my Holbein painting easel is a little on the heavy side. Other than that, everything works pretty good. I even have a small plier on standby in case the caps on the paint-tubes refuse to yield.

Found a pix of the West Coast Park on the internet:

Chinatown has been my favorite location for sketching and painting because of its variety of subjects in place to choose from. I had the opportunity to paint alongside Tung Tung who has been a master artist for a long while. Watching him complete his giant Chinese ink drawing in location is awe-inspiring.

Going back to Kampong Buangkok brought back lotsa memories. I was there first time last year and was astonished to find the last surviving kampong in Singapore. Noone would imagine that such a place exist at all. It was well hidden among the big trees, while driving there, you would see towering state housings along the way. Who would think urban Singapore could tolerate such a rustic place like this. A friend of mine wanted to paint the kampong too so we set off with our gears just to find that the weather was wet and raining. We weren't detered and settled underneath a shelter while the rain pattered away. I did a few sketches before I decided which composition to paint. I painted to the sound of rain and to the sound of hindi movies playing in the background. The feeling was out of this world. I took about 1.5 hours for this.

I have also been trying to paint without the pen lines. This would be my third or fourth attempt to do just that. While still trying to get use to painting without the lines, I have also been trying to be more experimental with watercolors. For this I was a little nervous at first but got better and loose with the painting as I progressed. The outcome, I am quite satisfied but I could be more bold with the shadows and to be less literal with the details.

Strathmore Watercolor Cold Pressed, 11" X 15"