Another of my Earliest Sculptures

I did this also at my extra-mural part-time class in 2003. This should be the second sculpture I ever did in class. It is a portrait sculpture, life-size. The material is cement reinforced with some fiberglass, hollow.

Looking back, I think the teacher/instructor make too big a jump in the way he progressed from the first to the second sculpture. At this second sculpture there were so many new sculpture techniques to learn. But I did manage the given task with just a slightly broken tip of the nose.

We followed a solid teaching model with muscles exposed and one eye closed.

My First Artwork in Class

The above picture should be the very first artworks that I did in class. It was dated July 2003. This was when I was finishing my semi-retirement at the university NTU. I was doing doing it at the NAFA sculpture workshop at their old Upper Wilkie Road campus. I think it was at an Extra-Mural Class on 'Portrait Sculpture' taught by their part-time staff Chang Wei.

I was learning the first steps of sculpting. We learnt about bas relief sculpting with wet clay, then about mixing water into plaster and pouring it to make a one-piece plaster mould. Next after applying separator we poured a plaster cast, and finally painting.

The Style of My Artworks

When I was going into sculptures, I did quite a bit of exploration into different styles and different materials. Some of these exploratory items are still on my shelves.

I submitted some of them into the Annual 3D Art Exhibitions of the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre at Tank Road. Among those I submitted, although there were a variety of styles, I was drifting towards creative artworks that are figurative and express strong emotions. They were not large as, perhaps for their practical reasons, these Exhibitions had to impose limitations on the size and weight of the artworks.

Subsequently I was honoured to be sponsored by this Ngee Ann Cultural Center (NACC) to hold a solo exhibition in May 2007. For this exhibition, the styles of my artworks were creative, figurative, expressing emotions, and with something to communicate. They are not necessarily stand-alone sculptures. The general term for some of them is installations. Doing installations allow the artist to have more freedom which is a necessary condition to be creative.

The Exhibition Hall is big. Thus some of my artworks could be big. There is now no size limitations other than the ceiling height. But to get more freedom from height limitation, some of my artwork were placed ourside the exhibition hall.

For this exhibition, I gave the title, "Our World Today". My focus was on humanity around the world. As many viewers may not know the background to what the artworks are expressing, to each of them I add a relatively long write-up to explain.

After this exhibition, I slowed down in the making of statues but continued to make installations making use of mostly of plastics boards very much becuae as they are not too heavy. These are again based on the human figure.

At the same time, I started to explore doing oil paintings. By then it is clear I focus on the realism style of paintings, many of them figurative but not all.

Then I got news I was sponsored a second time by the Ngee Ann Cultural Centre to hold a solo exhibition. This was held recently in October 2009, called "Our Changing World".

Thus in terms of contents, they continue to be about topical issues, events and people around our world. My artwork style continues to be the same.

I am surrounding by my paintings

For the time being, I've finished hanging up my paintings, both along my staircase and in a room upstair. As my wall space is limited, the paintings are crowded together all over the walls.

These paintings were mostly painted for my large solo exhibition in October 2009 with the theme 'Our Changing World'. Thus they are mostly on topical issues, events and people from around the world. Their style is realism, many of them figurative.

When I walk up and down the staircase and through this room to take a short cut to my study room, I feel surrounded by thing to do with our world.

To show what I mean, I have taken a video of these hung up paintings, and have loaded it into YouTube. It is here, duration 9 min. Oil Paintings on 'Our Changing World'

I cleared an upstair room to hang more paintings

By now my staircase is filled up with paintings, crowding against each other. The extra lightings have also been adjusted and improved.

But as I still have paintings to hang up, I decided to clear up one of my extra room upstair on top of the staircase. It was once a guest bedroom subsequently used for storage. The wall spaces on two sides can be used to hang paintings.

I thus clear off the things inside, some to be thrown away, some are put aside to give away, and the rest are moved into a smaller room next to the room I want to clear. This clearing is easily said than done. I keep being distracted by the old things I have to deal with.

Among the paintings I have to hang up, six of them are not on canvas. They are on plastics panels, each of size 2 x 4 ft. They are heavier than stretched canvas, hung not at the centre but at the two ends. They really gave me problem hanging up by myself. Once I had to call for an extra pair of hands to help.

I've now hung up all my paintings that deserve displaying, and have installed extra lighting in this upstair room.

Perhaps I'll do a retake of a video of the staircase and add on this room.

I get more active in Facebook

I am now quite active in Facebook. Initially I joined to network with artists. Some are with the online art forum which I have been active, and the others are their friends.

I spend time trying to get familiar with FB, especially with their privacy settings. The trouble is that FB has special terminology. It looks simple but is actually quite complex. They have to be complex as they have to cater for more than 300 million users each with their own interests when they network.

FB keep encouraging us to link up with more friends. This is their successful business model. They provide a free site and rely on income from adverts in their pages. The more users they get, the more businesses are willing to pay to put adverts there.

Gradually I notice other friends also using FB and I link up with them. Some are old classmates, and some are relatives. This is where the situation gets more complex. This I like to show or talk about to do with art are not of interest to others.

Fortunately a few artist friends are helpful and guide me on how to separate the conversations into groups of friends. But sometimes I forget.

In general, for networking with artists, FB has its pros and cons compared with online art forums. I notice so far in FB I cannot get in-depth discussions with artist friends. It is not designed for longer comments. After a while, the line of discussions gets buried and does not rise to thet top with new comments.

FB has fan page for more in-depth comments. But the comments are limited to friends who link to the fan page.

On the other hand, the amount of interest in online art forums seem to be reducing and artists are drifting to FB.

Camcorder & Facebook

I have not been using this pocket size camcorder to record videos to put into YouTube. For this purpose I'm still using the borrowed camcorder. But as one day my friend may want it back for his own use, I may have to buy a proper one for myself.

I have been pursuing another activity related to art. I have joined Facebook to connect to my art friends. It is a complex e-platform and takes time to get familiar. By now I am a bit better using it and adding as 'friends' more artists I knew, and others that I previously didn't know. I also managed to search for and connect with some local art friends.

But Facebook is for networking with any friends. Gradually I have made connections with say some relatives, old friends that are not artists, old colleagues, classmates, etc.

One problem is that when I post something to artists, this also appears at the FB page of other friends. Many of these art postings are not really of interest to others. I'll have to see how to be selective in sending out my postings.

Trying Out my new pocket size HD Cammcorder Samsung U10

The new pocket size HD camcorder I bought is remarkable. It is the Samsung U10, packed full with options. I got it at S$319.

Unfortunately it is so complex that at first I can't get the touch pad switches to work, and had to take it back the next day to the shop (store) that I bought it from. It works when the sales assistant tried it. Then I notice it was my 'butter fingers'. I am used to pressing clickable buttons while these touch pad switches work with a gentle tap of the finger.

Then when I went home to try it out, I notice Samsung do not supply a printed user's manual. They only supply a CD. This is most user-unfriendly. I cannot flip through the 90 pages of it on my computer screen. Nor is it worth my while printing the full 90 pages on my computer printer.

This problem took me sometime to sort out. I had to check through to see what pages are worth printing, then printing them in a 2 to one page format. Then I notice some printed letter size after printing is too small to read.

I next managed to record and playback videos. These are simple steps. But when I want to load the video on to YouTube, I keyed in the wrong ID or password. Somehow I cannot go in to key them in again.

I finally had to manually transfer the video to my computer and then load into YouTube. This is what I have been doing all along with my borrowed camcorder.

See below for the YouTube of this Samsung U10 trial test. The lighting of the recording is not as good as that of my borrowed camcorder. Also while recording I tried to zoon out and it was not responding.

Test Video Samsung U10


[To be continued ...]

I've loaded more YouTube Videos

I have been working hard. I've now recorded and uploaded the 3rd YouTube video, duration 1:30 min, and subsequently a group of five more.

In terms of video technique, for the first two videos, the camcorder was kept still while recording. For the 3rd one, the camcorder was slowly panned around on a tripod.

Do take a look by clicking below. Your comments and ratings there are most welcome.

Sculptures in my Garden [This has now been removed, and replaced by on of them below.]

These below are the group of 5 videos, shot inside my house with the camcorder held in the hand.

My Oil Paintings up on my Staircase - # 1 ... time: 0:22 min
My Oil Paintings up on my Staircase - # 2 ... time 0:55 min.
My Oil Paintings up on my Staircase - # 3 ... time 0:45 min.
My Oil Paintings up on my Staircase - # 4 ... time 0:40 min.
My Oil Paintings up on my Staircase - # 5 ... time 0:34 min

Then I took and loaded two more. They are a re-take of earlier videos.

Rotating Model Yacht with Reflective Sails ... time 1:21 min.
Statues in my front garden ... time 2:38 min.

The camcorder I am using is borrowed. It is a HD camcorder normally used for large blow up showing on HD TV screens. When my videos are loaded on to YouTube, the sharpness and light contrast are good. But just for a 1.5 minute recording, it takes up a large 75 MB file, and a long time to upload on to YouTube. This large HD size is however a problem for me only. It is not a problem on YouTube, as they allow even larger sizes.

I have now bought myself a camcorder, a Samsung U10. It is pocket size, but it is HD. Technology changes very fast with these digital devices. I've now finished charging the battery, and I'd be testing it tomorrow.

I then recorded and loaded a new YouTube, see below, still using my borrowed camcorder. The new one is not working well. More details in my comments below and in a new posting.

One Sun Painting Studio & Sculpture Workshop ... time 3:35 min.

My First YouTube Videos - Rotating Model Yacht

I'm excited. I got my first YouTube videos published.

I did video recordings of the rotating sculpture model mentioned two posts below, and loaded it into my computer. I then subscribed to YouTube and published my video clips it there. This is my very first time.

The first video is a trial test YouTube video with no music. But it is successful, visually nice, with my name up there. Click into the link below to see it.

Rotating Model Yacht with Stainless Steel Sails

The second video is done in the evening. Visually it is not as attractive. But I made some improvements to the techniques by making the video shorter, putting in some background music, and making better commentary.

Rotating Model Yacht with Stainless Steel Sails - Evening View

Old Bronze Vases

These two days I am doing a bit of 'spring cleaning'.

One task is to check on my informal collection of paintings, prints, reproductions and other artworks. I have to give many of them away. I have been displaying my own artworks around my house and there are now not much space left to display artworks not done by me.

While clearing up, I got interested two identical old bronze vases passed on to my by my mother, see below. Around the sides they each has well done bas reliefs of Chinese style dragons, phoenix biirds, and dogs.

On careful checking, I notice they were not from China. The bottom has engraved letters saying they were cast in Kyoto, Japan. It is a pity the year they were made was not indicated.

Our family was in Hong Kong which was occupied by Japan from 1941 to 1945. Our father was a doctor and was asked to continue practising during this period. Were these vases given to him by a Japanese in appreciation of a job well done?

These vases are 10 in. tall.

Displaying my Old Rotating Sculpture Maquette

While touching up my old painting, I felt like doing some physical work and I took out for display at home a very old rotating sculpture maquette that has been tucked away gathering dust.

This was already five years ago that I made it to get ready for an outdoor sculpture competition. Finally I didn't even get through the first judging round which required only paper submission. Thus I had no chance to submit for the second round the maquette (small conceptual model).

This maquette was already disassembled and stored away. Recently I took them out, put them together again, made some improvements, and switch on the motor. It still worked.

I thought it a good idea to take a video of it and got a friend to help me take it, later on in the week. In the meantime, this below is the still carmera shot of the maquette on display at home in the shade outside my house.

It is a model racing yacht with the beautiful sails made of stainless steel sheets. When the maquette rotates, interesting reflections from the curved sails can be seen slowly moving. Even the water waves from the bow can be seen as reflective foil.



Incidentally on the right, the large globe which I designed and painted, rests on a flat rotating bearing. It can be rotated, manually.

Tweaking an old Painting

After deciding to call it finish the two smoke & fire paintings, I notice among the paintings hung up on my wall, another old painting was done in a hurry and really need improvements. It is called 'Nantah Pioneering Spirit'.

This below is the WIP after some improvements yesterday.



This was the last painting I did before my recent exhibition. It was still a WIP and I shouldn't have shown it. But as the topic was interesting, I showed it. And true enough an artist friend who saw it was not happy.

Hanging & Lighting Up my Big Paintings

Today I got outside help to install special lighting for my painting displays, as well as assembling and hanging up my large 6 x 6 ft painting along my staircase. See below for the picture. The job is quite difficult, but we managed.

It is difficult to place ladders on a staircase. I have to specially plan the way I hang up this large painting. If one day I need to tranport it somewhere else for display, it can be lowered by the hanging wire all in one piece. It can then be transported away in one piece.

Reworking My Earlier Smoke & Fire Painting

After this smoke & fire painting, I have taken out my previous one to rework. It was badly done and really has to be improved. This painting shows workmen inspecting the furnance melts of Singapore's earlest iron and steel mill.

This is a difficult painting to paint well as it has many small changes in tones and values. This below is the WIP after some reworking. It still requires further tweaking.

This Painting is Finished

I've just finished and signed this smoke and fire painting.

It was prompted by news of violent supressions of protests in Iran. It shows one of their policemen in front of a burning motor cycle.

Perhaps a title for this painting is "Middle East on Fire". It is an oil on canvas painting, size 30 x 40 in.

My Sculpture Garden

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In front of my house, I have on display some outdoor sculptures, see below. Some are done by me, but not all. The garden fence is not too tall and neighbours walking outside can see them.

Recently I arranged to paint them all sparkling white. This makes them look very nice.

In the picture of my garden below, the three from the left were done by me. The first one, done in concrete, was kept to remember my very first sculpture I did in class. The second one shows a muscular man in agony squatting over a sinking earth. The third one shows a proud male lion. Both are cast by me in fiberglass. fiberglass.

The tall sculpture on the right is a beauty, probably the only one in Singapore. It is a quality fiberglass copy of the ancient Greek marble statue 'Winged Victory' in the Louvre Museum, Paris.



In the second picture below, among the sculptures, except the two on the right, the others were not done by me. On the left is a large 3 ft diam fiberglass globe. It was designed and painted by me.



I am the designing artist of the concrete ship underneath the Winged Victory, and the concrete round stepped platforms underneath the sculptures.

Incidentally I didn't buy any of these sculptures not done by me. I got all of them free, from the local art college that I used to attend part-time.

And, about six months ago, when Google sent its Street View car with its roof-top camera to drive around Singapore, the car did come around my house. As a result, they took and publish photos of my house and my garden with these sculptures. It is a pity the photos were taken before I arranged to repaint the sculptures sparking white.
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Hanging up My Paintings - A New Year Task

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Over these few days over the New Year, other than clearing up my sculpture workshop and writing blogs, I have also started rearranging to get clear wall spaces to hang up some of my relatively large oil paintings.

It is surprising I have never hung up my own paintings on my walls. For some time I just paint non-stop to prepared for my large solo painting exhibition. After finishing a painting I then put it up on my racks to dry which takes many months. Now that the exhibiton is over, I can now start hanging these paintings up.

This picture below shows four of the paintings being hung up at the bottom portion of my staircase.

The hanging locations seem all right. But there is insufficient lighting on the few paintings further up at the staircase wall. I'll need to see what can be done on this.

I'll continue to get more hooks and hang up more.

It may be of interest this large painting of an angry old man faces the entrance door of my house. It'd give visitors a shock when I open the front door. LOL !



Further up along the staircase, I have two large wall spaces. I am excited that one of the spaces shown on the left below is ideal for hanging up my large 6 x 6 ft painting assembly called 'Upside Down World'. But the location is too high up for me, and there is no suitable ground space for a good ladder support. I'll need outside help to safely hang them up.

Even on the simple job hanging the few paintings shown above, I fell. Fortunately I fell just a few steps, and there was no harm done.





This afternoon as I've a small job to be done at my roof top, I've asked my renovation contractor to come over. While he is over, I'll also ask him to install extra lighting and to hang up this large 6 x 6 ft painting assembly.

Soon my staircase will become my home art gallery. LOL !

[Click on the picture images above to enlarge.]
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Continuing with this Painting

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When I continued with this WIP, I did some detailed touch up with yellow, and then added the white (Titanium White) colour to make the hottest part of the fire white instead of yellow.

Then I had to decide whether I should keep this as a painting with only these three plus white colours, or should I add a bit of other colours to some small areas.

I then decided on the latter. The main reason is that this man's face and hands cannot be painted by the three plus white colours alone.

This below is the next WIP picture with nearly all the colors in place to show the man.

I think after this should be the detailing.



While I am taking pictures inside my house, I took a shot of my painting studio, see below. Behind my floor easel the shelves are where I put many of my previous sculpture items. On the floor are two of my 3 x 3 canvas paintings making up the large 6 x 6 ft painting assembly 'Upside Dowm World'.


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