Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore

I escaped to Singapore for five days in September. As I made the third day of the trip a day for museums and galleries, I visited the National Gallery Singapore to begin the day.

I went to see both Lim Cheng Hoe’s and Wu Guanzhong’s solo exhibitions, and the first one came with a free guide. Aside from guiding us through the show, the guide also shared some stories about the development of Singapore with us.

National Gallery Singapore offers free guides to visitors in English and Mandarin. You can register to join at the ground floor.

Source: National Gallery Singapore: Lim Cheng Hoe

“Lim Cheng Hoe (1912–1979) was the leading watercolour artist of his generation and one of the founders of the Singapore Watercolour Society. Largely self-taught, he studied painting under the then-art inspector of schools, Richard Walker, and honed his skills in the 1950s and 1970s by practicing and interacting with fellow artists during outdoor painting sessions.” (by National Gallery Singapore)

In the showroom. Photo by Rye

“Beginning with the early days of his practice in the 1930s, this exhibition features over 60 artworks, sketches and archival materials that highlight Lim’s mastery of outdoor watercolour landscape painting.” (by National Gallery Singapore)

Not titled – Kampong House with Two Figures
Source: National Gallery Singapore: Lim Cheng Hoe
Not titled – Construction Site in the City
Source: National Gallery Singapore: Lim Cheng Hoe

“Lim’s style of painting had changed by the late 1960s. He sought to capture the modod of a scene in addition to form and texture.”

The Estuary
Photo by Rye
Lim’s portrait works.
Photo by Rye

To visit the National Gallery Singapore, you can use my link to get a discounted ticket and win a coupon worth TW$100 when you register. You can also click here to get a cheaper ticket to the National Gallery Singapore 😉

Rye Lin Art & Translation works closely with the art and cultural industry.

If you’d like to translate your documents from English to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, feel free to contact us for a quote.

Wu Guanzhong: Expressions of Pen & Palette

I escaped to Singapore for five days in September. As I made the third day of the trip a day for museums and galleries, I visited the National Gallery Singapore to begin the day.

I went to see both Lim Cheng Hoe’s and Wu Guanzhong’s solo exhibitions, and the first one came with a free guide. Aside from guiding us thorugh the show, the guide also shared some stories about the development of Singapore with us.

National Gallery Singapore offers free guides to visitors in English and Mandarin. You can register to join at the ground floor.

Source: National Gallery Singapore: Wu Guanzhong

There are a bunch of themes in this exhibition, including My Land, Jiangnan, The Journey, Beyond the Image, Nudes in Twilight, New Rhythms of Tradition, and Landscape of Life.

The Gallery puts handwritten scripts on walls to separate each theme.

Source: National Gallery Singapore: Wu Guanzhong

Among all the works exhibited in this show, I enjoyed Jiangnan series the most, and Manners of the Hometown of Lu Xun caught my eyes. With the pale blue background and humble houses in light brown, black, and white, the scene is highlighted by tree trunks and branches, and the peaceful water also speaks of tranquility.

Manners of the Hometown of Lu Xun
Photo by Rye
An Old Wall
Photo by Rye
Another series in this exhibition, The Journey.
Photo by Rye

In another series, The Journey, A Bridge over the Seine River delivers a similar vibe. I like his use of colours in lower saturation. They make the painting peaceful and calming.

Source: National Gallery Singapore: Wu Guanzhong
Cave Households
Photo by Rye

Still, there are more themes covered in Wu’s solo exhibition.

Part of a painting from Beyond the Image series.
Photo by Rye
An Indoor Scene of A Pub in England
Photo by Rye
The Great Chaotic World
Photo by Rye

The sunset marks a good ending for this exhibition, and we were about to leave the Gallery for our next museum in Singapore.

The exhibition was about to conclude, so almost all visitors received a delicate exhibition catalogue. Lucky us!

Besides this one, I also went for another exhibition in the National Gallery Singapore, Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore, which was also an amazing one. It demonstrates the history of Singapore with the painting conceived by the Singaporean artist Lim Cheng Hoe. Why not take a look at it? Click here to read about it.

Wanna pay a visit to the National Gallery Singapore? Click here to get a cheaper ticket 😉

Rye Lin Art & Translation works closely with the art and cultural industry.

If you’d like to translate your documents from English to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Malaysian, feel free to contact us for a quote.

Filming A Cantonese Ad? Working with HK Dentists in An Ad Video Production Session!

This was a special project for me — participating in a promotional video shooting session aka doing Cantonese>English interpretation for a UK marketing firm as they were filming ads for Hong Kong!

Sounds complicated?

Photo by Daniel Frank

I had the same feeling at the beginning too. But anyway, as shooting ads is so much cheaper in Taiwan than in Hong Kong, the whole team flew to Taipei to film this video!

The dentists are from Hong Kong and Macau, and the filming crew is from the UK, so I interpreted what the dentists say to the UK team so that they knew if the dentists spoke right — there are regulations about advertising in Hong Kong so they had to make sure no one violated those rules when filming the ad.

Photo by Daniel Frank

This is my first-time experience to participate in the filming session. I enjoyed the job a lot and glad that I met some interesting HK colleagues during that session.

If you are coming to Taipei to film your video, or you need a Cantonese<>English interpreter, feel free to contact me for a quote 😉 ryeryelin@gmail.com / RYE LIN ART & TRANSLATION