Goh Lam Eng

Goh Lam Eng, special participant as she is not from the home.  Comes to the drawing sessions rather reluctantly with her daughter, laughingly saying "why drawing at my old age?".   Just like the other participants, she insists she cannot draw.  Some days, she has refused totally to do anything but watch the others. But most days, she too has her favourite themes and style - neatly laid out patterns of lines and dots in bright colours. 

Yeap Woon Chun

Yeap Woon Chun, wheel-chair bound but generally still very independant as she can wheel herself around quite well.  She joined us only in September in our 8th or 9th session.  Like many of the others, she began hesitantly, experimenting with crayons in her first session. But plants was her favourite subject from the beginning. After a few sessions, she began drawing flowers -  which has remained her favourite subject for many sessions. 

Woon Chun's first two attempts, above, with crayons.

The second session with us, she starts using paints which are a better medium for her bold strokes

Having found that she likes paints better than crayons, Woon Chun begins to paint colourful flowers 

To see more of Woon Chun's paintings, go to:- 

https://picasaweb.google.com/liokee/YeapWoonChun?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Chow Sai Lin

Chow Sai Lin is affectionately nicknamed "The Diamond" by Home Staff as she has the distinction of being the oldest person in the Home at 94. Sai Lin is still sprightly and mobile.  Sai Lin uses the colours we put on her palette, carefully washing her brush as she changes colours for each line. Her drawings are careful lines of different shapes as if she is doing calligraphy. Indeed as can be seen below, she often does letters or Chinese characters. Every session, she will make 3 drawings after which she will raise her 3 fingers and tell us "3 already, enough".  Sometimes she will give us a cheerful toothless grin as she gets up from her seat.

Chong Poh Sim

Chong Poh Sim carries a little cloth bag containing a couple of pencils which she uses to sketch the objects she wants to put in her drawing and a little rubber for her to rub out what she considers to be mistakes. When we assure her that it doesn't really matter, she insists she wants to get it "right".   She seems to have thought out what she wants to draw every week and likes to explain what she is drawing.

The first two sessions, Poh Sim painted with free flowing strokes.

From the 5th Session, Poh Sim begins with her pencil, sketching carefully the objects she wants in her painting for the day. Each session she does just one painting with various objects laid out across the page.

 Poh Sim likes to sit next to Yoke Kam and chatter to her while drawing.

To view more drawings by Poh Sim, go to:-
https://picasaweb.google.com/liokee/ChongPohSim?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Ong Say Lean

Ong Say Lean attends our drawing sessions very regularly. She is blind in one eye and has rather dim sight with the other.  In the beginning she would frequently ask us what the colours in her palette were, sometimes requesting for more brown and green - the two colours she used most frequently to draw trees. Remarkably, after a few sessions, she needed less help to identify colours and began to produce more lively and colourful compositions.
Here are some samples of Say Lean's drawings.

The above was Say Lean's very first attempt.

Three weeks later, she started on her favourite subject - trees.

The theme of trees continued for a few weeks

 4 weeks later Say Lean begins to add some brighter colours

Some days, she still paints in subdued, grey hues.

Here is a picture of Say Lean doing a painting of 3 striking trees. 

 To see more drawings by Say Lean go to her Picasa Web Album:-

https://picasaweb.google.com/liokee/OngSayLean?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Khoo Seang Sim

Seang Sim is small in size, rather hunched, but still mobile and healthy. She is able to walk slowly and steadily on her own to the Friday drawing sessions.

After experimenting with using colours in different ways, she found a particular style which she repeated, session after session. 

Seang Sim's very first drawing on 8 July showing her playing with different colours around a circle.

Seang Sim's third drawing.

She spent the fourth session dabbing out different colours from her palette.

Then, in the next two sessions, Seang Sim plays with different ways of using her brush and copies a bit from what others near her are doing in their painting. 

By the eighth session, Seang Sim arrives at a painting style which she then repeats for the next few sessions.

See more of Seang Sim's drawings in her web album at:-
https://picasaweb.google.com/liokee/KhooSeangSim?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Wong Sweat Jong

Wong Sweat Jong, a soft spoken gentle lady, needs a lot of encouragement to get started and to keep going. It takes her a long time to decide where to start and what to do.  Yet, on some days, when she relaxes and lets her brush flow, she has produced some beautiful pieces of abstract art.  When these are put up on the wall, she will smile in agreement that yes, they are beautiful! To view Sweat Jong's work, go to her web album at:-

https://picasaweb.google.com/liokee/WongSweatJong?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKbTpdajiZSnJQ&feat=directlink

Kam Lan and Sweat Jong usually sit side by side, during the Friday drawing sessions.