A Spot of Sunshine (Creeper daisy)

Oil on stretched canvas
61 x 76 cm
(24 x 30 inches)

Macro view -- this flower is about the size of my finger nail. I planted these creepers to add lushness to the spaces between the tall plants. Soon, they spilled outwards to form an unruly yellow polka-dotted border.

Back to basics

Lipstick & bed.
Oil on wood
71x33 inches (180 x 84 cm)

 <sorry, can't get it to portrait view..>

Cyrtostachys renda are also known as sealing wax or lipstick palms.

 An artist friend and self-taught carpenter created a seven-foot panel made from the wooden strips of my bed that broke.

Applying paint with broad house-painting brushes on a wide wooden surface was an exhilarating change from dabbing on yielding canvas.

The bed broke five years ago and I'm still sleeping on a floor mattress. Nothing beats the floor as mattress support. A sunken floor is good too. This was how an architect I knew slept.

The surface of her futon was flush the surrounding floor. The room, as with most of the areas in her translucent home, was a series of spaces that melt into each other. The house had very few solid walls. It wasn't particularly big but the seamless connection of interior with plants-filled exterior -- which at certain stretches reached the house proper -- made it a spatially rich home.

Another remarkable modern tropical home is that of potter Iskandar Jalil. The Cultural Medallion recipient's home used to be a back-to-basics single-storey terrace that was part traditional Japanese, part Southeast-Asian, with timber floors on which he slept at night and floors that creaked underfoot.

When he renovated the house and added two more storeys, he felt no necessity for a bed still. After a day of creative flow in his ground level work space that was filled with pottery, a painting or two in progress, and a longkang (drain) of fishes diverted from the garden, he would retreat to the living and family space upstairs.

At bedtime he would unfurl his sleeping mat by a glass partition fronting an indoor courtyard, sleeping within inches of the moonlit plants.

Holey petal of Ixora

Thru 'n Thru
Oil on stretched canvas
40 x 50 cm

Close-up of a small cluster of Ixora, a year-round flowering shrub that's a common sight in tropical Asia. It's sometimes called West Indian jasmine, among many other names.

Blue Swing & Fishies Under Star palm

Stars Below
Oil on stretched canvas
61 x 75 cm /  24" x 29"
Currently unavailable

What drew me..... The beauty of the star palm--whether you're looking at it from above, or from that garden swing below, its fronds silhouetted against the sky.
 

Painted out..... My cat, basking in the sun on the tabletop, so he wouldn't steal whatever little attention the fishies were getting.

Oh...I liked throwing balls of paper on him. He'd look everywhere but UP :>D

Fluorescence (Heliconia)

Oil on stretched canvas
71 x 56 cm / 28 x 22 inches.
Currently Unavailable

There are more than 100 types of Heliconia. Some look like 'birds of paradise', others resemble lobster claws, etc, and hence their names. I prefer those with strong forms over the light and 'flighty' ones.

Butterfly or blue pea flower (Bunga telang)

Biru Bunga Telang
Oil on stretched canvases
72 x 92 cm / 28 x 36 inches
Triptych
Currently Unavailable.

Native to tropical equatorial Asia, this climber has an interesting botanical name: Clitoria ternatea. The flowers, shorter than a thumb, were commonly used  to colour food such as glutinous rice deserts. My grandmother did this often, sending us to pluck the flowers from neighbouring fences.

Triptych with deep profile.

In View (Pink carnation)

Oil on stretched canvas
50 x 40 cm / 20 x 16 inches

I do get flowers from my sweet family occasionally => and this time I scrutinised the insides; great views!

Red Delicious

Oil on canvas
6 x 8 inches (15 x 20 cm)

Old Beloved Brass

Oil on canvas
Reserved

I'm a sucker for lost-and-found objects. But these aren't mine, they belong to Mr Wee @Waterloo St. I couldn't have asked for a more interesting composition.

Manuka

Commissioned work

A pear that stands

 

A Great Pair

Oil on canvas

8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm)

VIRGIL: "To start with, a pear has an unusual shape. It's round and fat on the bottom, but tapered on top... A pear has no buttocks. Its bottom is round."

BEATRICE: "So how does it stay up?"

VIRGIL: "It doesn't. A pear either dangles from a tree or lies on its side... 

The crunchiness of a pear is far more appealing. It is giving and fragile. To eat a pear is akin to...kissing."

VIRGIL: "Oh, my. It sounds so good."

-- Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel.

Fragrance (frangippani)

Oil on 2 square of gallery-wrapped canvas.

 

 In Asian cultures, the Frangipani tree is associated with mysticism. The tree is said to provide refuge to spirits and the flower is commonly used in Hindu religious ceremonies. 

Polynesian women wear the flowers to express their relationship status -- over the right ear if they are single and over the left if they are 'taken' or in a committed relationship.

The tree thrives even in hard, inhospitable earth. Its gnarled, leafless stem belies its ability to soon become lush and sprouting fragrant blooms. Hence the Frangipani is also symbolic of rebirth and regeneration. 

Doors of a Chinese courtyard house

Sold

<Strange, the image keeps appearing sideways..>
I painted this one night while seated in an armchair and wearing pyjamas, without a painting apron, certain that if I was extra careful I wouldn't get paint on myself. Well, I was wrong, and not for the first time too.

The reference shot was one of many photos I had taken while holidaying in Beijing with three fellow museum docentss. Such ancient doors open out to a hutong (胡 同) or alley. Behind the alley walls are siheyuan (四 合 院) -- traditional courtyard houses with indoor gardens in which generations of families have lived.

During the Ming Dynasty, aristocrats and families of high social standing and importance lived in larger, more elaborate siheyuan around and closer to the Forbidden City. The commoners and others lived further away and occupied smaller and simpler siheyuan.

In the course of my journalism career, I've been fortunate to have visited some amazing local homes fashioned after the traditional Chinese courtyard house. A number are built right to the edges of the plot. An open garden/courtyard is ensconced in the centre, a step from every living space of the home.

Entering such a house from the street is like walking into another exterior, albeit one that's partially roofed, calming and private.

Distress

The almost-antique fire extinguisher that I loved mysteriously disappeared from the porch. It's such a shame. It was rusty in parts and its top had the loveliest oxidised patina of blue, uniquely distressed and organic.

The brass bell is reminder of a historical tragedy, with "Titanic" engraved on it. A fleamarket find. 

Ray-Ban & Car Key

I've only ever worn Ray Ban, nothing else. Sunshades, that is.

Acrylic on paper

Smokes

Acrylic on paper

Black Glaze

NFS

Acrylic on paper

Snatch of a song

Acrylic on paper