The Sunday painter
Oh's works have been termed
'transparent, right to the point and spontaneous'.
Winston Oh
Watercolourist
SUNDAYS used to be set aside for
painting, for watercolourist Winston Oh, but one's best weekend plans can
be scuppered by grandchildren, especially when you have six, and all under
10 years. The cardiologist still manages to find quality time to paint
however, judging by the solo show being held at Lasalle College of the
Arts right now. The 40 works were done over the last five years, but
represent just a fraction of his collection. He reckons that he makes some
80 to 100 works a year.
'Sundays used to be sacrosanct, and I
could do about two paintings on the day. But now, I try to find time on
Saturdays as well,' he explains. While personal painting schedules are
erratic of late, what he has stuck to assiduously in the last 10 years is
to make two teaching trips to the UK a year. 'It's the time I go to
'Constable country',' quips the 69-year-old Dr Oh, referring to Suffolk
where one of England's famous 19th century painters John Constable did
most of his landscape paintings.
Dr Oh's passion for watercolours -
stirred some 20 years ago, 'When the children had grown up and I had more
time in my hands,' he says - sees him painting local and overseas scenes,
and also teaching in the UK. It's at a school where he had first started
honing his own painting skills over 20 years ago. He'd go for the
immersion classes every year, and when his teacher eventually retired, he
asked Dr Oh to take over - which goes without saying that it's quite a
commendation. Dr Oh goes for a week each time in June and October, when
British weather is at its best - being fresh and cool - and the light also
yields one of the best colours.
As a painter, his preference is to do
on-the-spot painting, where a painting can take him two to three hours to
complete. 'But it has taken me more than 20 years to reach this point,
that's the crux,' he stresses. 'When I first started, it took me twice as
long.'
Watercolours are a great medium for
capturing moods, plus they're portable enough for one to travel with and
become a roving painter, he advocates. He's not the type to wait for one
layer after another of acrylic or oil to dry, preferring to see the
'result' in one sitting. 'I'm impatient,' he confesses. But watercolour
painting is by no means an easy medium, not from the way Dr Oh explains
the craft.
'One can use it to depict any season -
from frosty mornings to the blaze of the tropical sun,' he says, as he
gestures towards his collection of paintings of Venice and Tunisia. He
doesn't like taking photographs and painting from them either, if he can
help it, because the camera still doesn't capture light properly, he
believes. 'And then there's the inspiration or excitement of the moment,
which can fizzle out by the time you try to paint from the photograph.'
Dr Oh's paintings are classic landscape
works but washes of colour with a bit of tones here and there give more
broad impressions rather than detailed depictions. 'My style is more loose
so the essence of the scene is captured,' he embellishes. And because
watercolour is a transparent medium, the works aren't just about the
paints or pigments, but also the paper. You want to be able to see the
paper so you put on just one layer or two, otherwise you lose the
luminosity.'
Despite the watercolour impressions,
there's still a fair bit of detail, notably human figures in his
paintings, 'to provide animation and narrative besides scale to the
painting,' Dr Oh explains.
The exhibition at Lasalle is to provide
a perspective on the classical medium to the art students there, most of
whom would be more familiar with contemporary art practices rather than
watercolour. 'Describing The Light' is one of Dr Oh's few solo shows here,
although he's exhibited overseas in London, Switzerland and Australia.
Proceeds of this show will be donated to the Winston Oh Postgraduate Fine
Arts Research fund at Lasalle.
'For the past 10 years, I've been
supporting Lasalle College students with annual travel scholarships to
eight students,' says Dr Oh. The scholarships are for Asian destinations,
while three senior degree students will get the chance to be exposed to
European contemporary art. 'The idea is to enable students in their
formative years to gain exposure to other cultures, environments, arts, to
record their responses to this new experience,' adds Dr Oh, an educator at
heart.
This time around, the Singapore
National Art Gallery acquired one of his paintings from this exhibition
for the national art collection, he highlights, adding that it's a deep
honour for him. Singapore's best known watercolourist Ong Kim Seng has
also commented on the nature of Dr Oh's works - that they're 'transparent,
right to the point and spontaneous'.
To budding watercolour painters out
there, Dr Oh points out that it's not easy to learn it on one's own but
not impossible. He's one example - of how a hobbyist can rank up there
with the professionals. -
2010 April 3 BUSINESS
TIMES
