Blog

This series started after the Banda project in Chinatown, and it's upon the request of Member of Parliament Mr Chan Chun Sing who graced the official opening at Banda that he asked if I was keen to color and paint some blocks at Zone D in Holland V which is his constituency.  I answered unequivocally with a Yes! not knowing the extent of the project...

I explored the entire place from Blocks 12, 11, and 13 one day and selected the largest walls on both sides of each block making it a total of 6 walls with Block 12 as the most prominent one facing the main road and not far from where Cold Storage is. It's a bohemian neighbourhood where expats live side by side with locals most of whom had been living there for 40 years... I studied a bit of the history as I always do before I do any walls that maybe special for that constituency.  I realised that the name Holland was named after a Dutch architect who lived there and there were expats with their children studying in schools in the past where the present day Chip Bee Gardens blocks are. 

My first wall at Block 12 was a gate that I painted live at Fort Canning and thought that it would blend in with the seats and chairs by the wall making it look like a park.  As the wall is just by the Senior Citizens Corner that I had included a grandfather with his grandchild (which is a metaphor or me really as a child with my grandpa whom I hardly knew as he passed on when I was just two). 

So glad for the opportunity to showcase a work after Van Gogh and it's befitting to do The Yellow Cafe in a local cafe here! There are a total of four walls and as the customer walks in, the first thing he sees is this wall on the left followed by the smaller wall that's linked to this and is a continuation of the first. Behind these two are the 'cat' and the 'Segovia' walls. I took around 5.5 days to complete the entire 4 walls.

I was pretty excited to be called to do this task of painting a few walls at a housing estate right in one of the heartlands in Singapore. This place is dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh with the impressionist theme. This was one of few images that I selected and improvised it a little as I do not go for realism. I wanted to portray a bright and cheery landscape as residents walk by each day to and from work, the marketplace or anywhere they are going and coming home from. I was happy when the policeman whose office was just next door commented kindly that the piece was nice to look at. As I was working, a taxi driver stopped and view it for a while. I got connected to a few people during my work there which lasted two weekends for this wall.

I was so glad that Vincent was honored in this part of my country and in this neighborhood. Alongside with this wall are other smaller ones that adorn the walkways in this estate with Vincent's other paintings done by the community.

I am honored to be a part of this awesome project and will not forget my humble beginnings as an artist.
Thank you for following me in my journey. I shall endeavor to share more of my art walks with you where they are found.