Paintings

I explore nature materially and conceptually.  I exploit the material language of flatness, and the fluidity of ink and water-based mediums to conceptualise boundaries and forms, and to paint from the 'inside-out'. Concepts in my works emerge through embodied observations and my engagement with materials. One example is my ‘pooling’ method, where I create pools of water using ink and pigments on paper, and working over them across extended periods. The idea of ‘pooling’ draws largely from the traditional Chinese ink technique of pomo (潑墨)[splashed ink], as well as from my observations of water puddles in nature reserves. These puddles seem to have a life of their own, not to mention the myriads of organisms living in them. They are never static, shifting across surfaces over time and simply ‘doing their own thing’.

My brushwork is mainly calligraphic, influenced by traditional scripts , techniques of xieyi(寫意) [writing ideas] and gongbi(工筆) [meticulous style], as well as by the experimental possibilities I have explored through the watercolour medium. Many years of working with these two similar yet fundamentally opposing types of mediums, have enabled me to combine and develop a means of expression that allows me to communicate my ideas freely and authentically.

​

Living and practising between the UK and Singapore, I practise through a diasporic lens. The concept of being and place play significant roles in my work, with links to geography, culture, and the personal. In my ink paintings, I seek emergent knowledge in the interstices between the natural world that surrounds me, and my Southeast Asian cultural heritage. 

​