Artist: Goh Siew Guan (b. 1942)

Goh Siew Guan was born in Sarawak in 1942. He served as a full-time art educator for 30 years with the Ministry of Education after graduating from the Singapore Teachers’ Training College in 1965 and also practiced as a watercolourist, winning accolades such as the Dr. Tan Tsze Chor Art Award with Distinction in Western Painting in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014. Notable works that he had been commissioned to paint include the series Bali Experience (1987), by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. Mr Goh’s art has also been exhibited both locally and overseas.

Inspired by his travels and experiences of nature in different parts of the world, Mr Goh’s art often features landscapes, trees and rocks, of which he has become adept at painting. With his mastery of watercolour techniques, in particular blanking and lifting out, he is able to express his mind freely through his art.

Hiking

Hiking depicts a family -- father, mother and child out on a hiking trip, and looking toward a grove of majestic deciduous trees.  The artist brings out the beauty and serenity of nature with various tints of green, yellow and brown. Every detail, from the surrounding nature such as trees and rocks, to the family’s clothes and actions is also vividly and meticulously captured.  We can truly see how the artist values family and also taking time to enjoy the beauty of nature. Looking at the picture broadly, viewers are also led to contemplate on the fragility of family and nature in contrast to their beauty.

Relationships within families have become increasingly strained as stress-related frictions increase and members spend less time with each with the pressures brought about by living in a fast-paced, and advanced society today. This may even lead to families breaking apart. Similarly, with the increase in the human population, there is greater demand for space, and for other commodities, leading to rapid deforestation and global warming, resulting in the increasing loss of our natural surroundings.

We must therefore learn to treasure our families and natural surroundings, making an effort to build family relationships by spending more time with each other, and learning to forgive and to accommodate, and to conserve our forests by finding ways to live sustainably, such as recycling and reducing wastage and through institutional replanting of trees. In this way, through small acts of giving time, heart and resources, families and natural surroundings can be preserved and restored. In all, the message of the painting could be summed up with a saying by Anurag Prakash Ray, “Cherish everything that you have as nothing lasts forever otherwise you'll regret it after losing them.”

Balai Fishing Village

Balai Fishing Village is a painting of a rustic fishing village in Indonesia. Using a contrast of muted and bright colours, and with fine detailing of architecture, people and nature, the artist portrays a simple and idyllic lifestyle. Although life for the villagers there may not be easy, there is still a beauty in the simplicity of their lifestyle. As city dwellers, our lives may be far more complex and busy, but we too can learn to count our blessings and enjoy the simple and yet precious things in life such as spending time with family, or even having a good meal.   

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” - Robert Brault

Longevity

In Longevity, the artist captures the interesting sight of two aged trees with thick and rough trunks leaning against each other with their numerous branches intertwined, like an elderly couple that grew old together, supporting each other through thick and thin, and for better or worse. With the degradation of such values of marriage and love in society today, the painting leads viewers to reflect on the sanctity of marriage, and is a reminder of the unity and commitment in marriage and the sacrifices needed to be made for a marriage to last. 

“... for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish, until death do us part. This is my solemn vow.” - Book of Common Prayer by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury