sketchwalk January

This saturday 28 Jan, we will be sketching inside AND all around the National Museum of Singapore. we will also cover the fort canning park which is just behind the museum. It's free and easy so you can chose just the museum or both locations. We will meet at the museum's main porch (or around the front) at 10am. We will then spread out to any part of the musuem we want. It is the museum's open house that day, so you may also visit and draw in any of the galleries for free (see below). We will meet back at the museum's main porch at 1pm where we will gather for "show and tell" and then head for lunch. See you there!

Another Sketching Day at ACM

Well, it was raining again, on Hari Raya Puasa Friday afternoon, so I headed for the ACM again to sketch. Due to the holiday, there was free admission at the ACM too! The galleries were a bit more crowded, but I settled in at the Sumatra exhibition, let my eyes adjust to the dim light (not easy to do for us old guys) and began sketching. Here are several more hours of enjoyable interpretations of the exhibits - I especially like the Nandi Bull and the Minangkabau traditional house. I did all the inking on site, then had a few beers along the River to assess the results, and finally put in some color later at my residence.

Sunday afternoon at the ACM

Last Sunday, the threat of rain encouraged me to look for an indoor drawing venue. So I visited the Asian Civilisations Museum and decided to sketch at the special exhibit on "Sumatra - Isle of Gold". For over 2 hours I drew in their exhibition gallery - an amazing collection of ancestor sculptures, bead work, gold jewelry, keris and tradional Sumatran architecture. Here are the results, drawn in subdued lighting - sort of like our night sketching on Rangoon Road again! My apologies to the stone figure on the right for balancing the keris on his head!

Study trip to the National Museum, Singapore

Brought a group of 1st year environment design students to our very own National History Museum for a visit.


National History Museum, Singapore, originally uploaded by Paul SG.
Food gallery section of the Museum. The tricycle is actually our original food-on-wheels.

Traditional cooking utensils and tools for frying our yummy chay kway teow (fried noodles).

SAM Open House during CNY

Since I'm back, I haven't visit any local musuem at all. So taking the opportunity of free entry on the open house during Chinese New Year, I packed my stuff and headed out to Singapore Art Museum. It was an easy ride because everyone else has gone visitation. The streets were quiet and not congested like usual. At the lobby, we were greeted warmly and then we heard loud clangings and drums - there was a lion dance performance in conjunction with a Calligraphy demonstration event thingy. That's new! Then we went around to catch the exhibits. You may read more by visiting SAM website. The show I enjoyed most was Wu Guan Zhong's permanent collection. His journey to become an artist was very inspirational too. We settled down to take a break after 2 hours wandering in the museum. I found a spot to practice sketching a building and I chose to draw this exterior view. :D

musicians at the art museum

On 28 Jan, several modern and classic music groups were performing at the opening of the exhibition "Classic Contemporary" Contemporary Southeast Asian Art from the Singapore Art Museum Collection. The exhibition will end on 2 May.

museum night festival

Last Friday, the facade of the National Museum of Singapore was transformed into colourful canvas with spectacular light insllation. The windmill sculptural frame located at the main entrance of the museum carried at least three performers displaying acrobatic dance moves responding gracefully to sound and music. The performance was dazzling and spectacular culminate with a fantastic pyrotechnics show by Action Theatre PAN.OPTIKUM from Germany.

This interior sketch was done sitting outside the museum cafe before the 10.30pm night show. The crowd at the far end was the location for Donna Ong's installation work entitled "The Crytal City" which was one of my favourite displays for the event.

Again, the brown colour floor was the left-over coffee from my drink.