LOT 58
Ong Kim Seng
B. Singapore, 1945
Autumn in Bendigo, 1990
Signed and dated “A.W.S. 90” on lower right
Watercolour on paper
27 x 36 cm
Provenance Private Collection, Kuala Lumpur
RM 2,000 – RM 3,800
To him, “Art is a continuous journey. There may be pitfalls and times where you get stuck. It is up to one to choose a path and go along with it.”
Today, he is undeniably one of Singapore’s most prolific watercolourists. Accolades aside, he placed Singapore on the world map by being the only Asian artist residing outside of US to be admitted to the American Watercolour Society (‘AWS’).
As a plein-air realist painter, he stays true to his subject-matter, but continues to add an element of intrigue to it by varying the vantage points of his paintings. A fan of nature and traditional architecture, Ong often travels to Bali, Tibet, Nepal, Italy and more, in search of new subject-matter.
As seen in this piece, the landscape of Bendigo, a provincial city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the artist captures it beautifully with exquisite shadings and hyper-realistic contours.