石头论

今天原本到斗母宫的目的是看到报纸说有电脑展，电脑adaptor一命呜呼， 便想去一趟。 一到斗母宫， 便喜见一盆巨盆栽，耸立门口， 原来是有盆栽及雅石展赛会！

盆栽比赛又分大型和小型，有各种各样我第一次听到的树种， 最新奇的叫寿娘子。除了盆栽， 还有雅石展。刚好我们去的时候， 有来自吉隆坡的雅石爱好家张国顺医生， 给了一个名为，“雅石的鉴赏与艺术”的座谈会。 张品石家说，欣赏一个石头， 有四大条件， 即“ 形﹑质、色、纹” 。 其中形和质又是最主要的。

我听了讲座后对那些展出的石头‘另眼相看’。

      后张医生又谈到雅石和艺术的关系。他说，一些人还在争论石头是不是艺术这个问题。因为石头不是人造的，是天然的，而普遍上人们口中的艺术品是指人造的。张医生解说道，如果有个朽木，被丢在河里，便不是艺术品。 要是有一个人把它带回家，洗干净，再修饰、替它提名， 那么那块木就是一个艺术品。说得非常好！这也令我想起，上个星期托嘉强的福，有幸到陈耀威建筑修复家的办公室参观。看到好多原本是横梁的弃木， 摆在架子上，有的刻上字，成了艺术品， 除装饰点缀外，还有纪念老房子的价值。

问答时段时，有位观众提到一些参展的石头很美很好看，可惜被布置得有点弄巧反拙。言下之意，是说那名玩石家的书法或画工不好，配不上雅石的美。爸爸整天说我的字不美，坏了我的速写。呜呜呜。。。难道我也犯了同样的错误？

槟岛。会大师。亲子游。Penang Sketching Trip

Ever since the first sketching/painting session organised by the Facebook group Penang Sketchers about a year ago, I'd been wanting to attend the sessions, but due to my location i was unable to. Last week I finally, finally attended one, at the world heritage site in Georgetown! Nothing could have been more wonderful than seeing my favourite sketch/painters in action with my own eyes. 

My parents and I received the warmest northern hospitality from sketchers Cheang Jin and Kiah Kien. I am a typical introvert. Long and loud outings drain my inner energy and confuse my overstimulated brain. But after meeting with my new sketcher friends I always felt revitalised and elated, for days!

The only sketch I did during the sketching session( 4.5 hours!) as I had an inflammed wrist (De Quervain's disease) but most importantly, I wanted to learn water colouring from the master. The first 3 hours of Cheang Jin's painting process were slow, tedious, impossible even. Then, everything just fell right into place,unveiling an extremely realistic, three dimensional  painting that attracted passersby and drew admiration from onlookers and facebook friends. Great patience and skill pay well, after all!

Photo of happy sketchers.

蕉风椰林。我的家

蕉风椰林。我的家

                                              今天心血来潮， 到家附近画画。画了一棵不知名的树，和一棵香蕉树。
                                                                                        十三号是种不知名树的家牌号码。

肉骨茶。书香天

Fruit King and Queen!

These are my parents, and they are avid supporter of local fruits, especially our king of the fruits, durian! 

It is a traditional Chinese belief that durians are 'heaty' food, and is best countered by 'cooling' food, which is none ther than the queen of the fruits, mangosteen! Or, you can drink salt water with a durian shell. 

Starting a Scrapbook

Got inspired by Julia Rothman and Alison Worman's scrap/sketchbook, so I've decided to start my own. While cleaning and organizing my room( it took 3 days!), I found piles of papers from the past, school work, notes, letters, childhood drawings. These are the first few pages of my scrapbook. More to come!

The scrapbook will act as a remembrance to a big chapter of my life, as very soon I will start another chapter- working life. =)

Visiting my favourite Sketcher in Singapore

 My favourite sketcher from Singapore, Don Low, posted a blog entry about my visit to singapore and of me joining the ad hoc sketchwalk organized by him! Don is a great inspiration to me.


 I am soooooo happy! And grateful for the kindness of Don and Edric in bringing Kuan Yew and me around Singapore, searching for art materials, browsing in artsy shops, and treating us to noodle mee pok and coffee! Below is the blog entry :

A Cheerful Visitor & Sketcher from Malaysia

Posted on August 2, 2011

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Ru Hui was the cheerful visitor and sketcher from Malaysia, to be exact from Ipoh, Malaysia. She is a prolific sketcher who have just spent 3 months backpacking in New Zealand @_@. On the way home, she decided to drop by our tiny island with her boy friend Kuan Yew (clear throat… not that KY, you know who). We had lunch at Tiong Bahru’s one and only Fishball Noodle restaurant, Hua Bee. Then we exchanged sketchbooks. I was pretty eager to thumb through her NZ sketchbook especially when I have already seen the pages from Facebook. After lunch I requested Ru Hui to draw something on my sketchbook for keepsake. While she was still deciding what to sketch, I suggested her sketching the fishball noodle auntie while she is standing beside her stove. I did a similar one earlier on.

Ru Hui and her sketch of the mee pok auntie

While Ru Hui was sketching, I stole a shot of her. LOL! She looked like a kid doodling on her sketchbook.

Later in the afternoon, we brought them to some quaint bookshops to browse, then to White Canvas for the Tiong Bahru gallery show, and finally to Straits Co. to get some art supplies. Ru Hui has always wanted to try the Hero fountain pen so she bought one for herself, as well as a brush pen and a bottle of Hero fountain pen ink.  She would be able to try out the pen when she came for a sketching and painting trip at One Fullerton. Here’s a shot of the event.

Sketchers @ One Fullerton
(End of Don's blog entry.)


This is the historic issuu publication, posted on Urban Sketcher, that introduced me to the wonderful works of Don. I remember staring at the sketches, totally mesmerized by each and everyone of them. I believe that this might be one of the biggest push for me to start sketching on location! 

Meeting one's favourite writer, or childhood idol is a lot of people's must do in life, and mine is to meet my favourite sketcher and see him sketch. And I 

did!!!!!!!! Thanks to facebook. This is my dream come true.

 

I have three folders of Don's sketches in my laptop( which wouldn't start after 4 months of non usage. sob) and i'd open them to stare at the sketches when I needed inspiration, or just felt like it. 

I owe my passion for sketching to Don, and many other sketchers worldwide. I hope that this passion will not die. =)

The Nature Guy in New Zealand

My guy is a nature lover. 

He is never bored looking at animals, plants and trees. 

There are pictorial evidence. 

Because of his love for the nature, he took up photography. 

And spent hours and hours taking photos of...

...beautiful creatures, like birds

and...more birds,

...and cute creatures, like sheep, 

...even scary creatures, like the spiders, ( speaking of which, this one look like a crab!)

And he is always gentle to them,

...feeding them, 

...taking them on a walk,

or run! 

Spider is not the only creepy, crawlie creature he is not scared of,
 he is into bee keeping as well!

There goes a brief introduction of the nature lover, Kuan Yew！