To support more caregivers, CaringSG will be raising donations at our upcoming i care! Gala Dinner. During the Gala Dinner, artworks which have been kindly donated by artists will be auctioned off.

Chia Choy Ping who has kindly donated three paintings, has words to share.

Painting has always been a hobby of mine since young. Retirement turned it into a passion. Not only do I have the luxury of time to doodle and paint, I also try to capture that moment in time (of places that I have visited) into a painting, though admittedly there were times when I did not do justice to God’s beautiful work of nature.

Art is a form of communication, an expression or message that an artist wishes to convey to the recipient or audience. The interesting thing is the response elicited from each of them may be different from the other and even more so, from what the artist intended him or her to have. That in itself makes art all the more intriguing, just as different people respond differently, given the same set of circumstances in life. As the saying goes, A picture paints a thousand words”, but the words may be different in each recipient’s or audience’s mind.

Truth be told, I started off with water colours as a medium because it was, and still is, considerably cheaper to pursue as a hobby than oil. That being said, I have no regrets using this medium – painting landscapes, sceneries and still life – as I travel to places of interest. The deep satisfaction when the completed work comes to fruition, especially evoking memories of places and countries visited, is to say the least, fulfilling and sublime. Even when I was in legal practice, taking time off to complete a painting was both relaxing and therapeutic, a source of stress release.

Water colour painting may seem deceptively simple to master. Yet, when one pursues it with intensity and earnestness, experimenting with fluidity or the merging of diluted/ concentrated paints, the texture of paper and types of brushes, one finds that it can create pleasantly surprising effects. Indeed, often, the painting takes on a life of its own. To see how the colours merge to form a fresh but unexpected hue or how the play of light and shadow can change the mood of the entire painting never fails to fascinate me. Here, I wish to acknowledge the inspiration I have drawn from the works of two world-renown water colour artists- Chien Chung Wei and Joseph Zbukvic.

I hope that you will enjoy browsing through my nascent works as much as I have enjoyed painting them. I had never envisaged publishing them but was encouraged to do so for a good cause. I take this opportunity to thank all the supporters of Caring.SG who have given so generously to the worthy cause of reaching out to caregivers. To all of you, I wish you a very good year ahead. And …  don’t forget to smell the roses along the sidewalk however busy you may be!

To learn more about how CaringSG supports special needs caregivers, we invite you to visit CaringSG’s Giving.sg donation page and make a donation to support these caregivers too.

Photos courtesy of artist Chia Choy Ping