98 Paintings For 98 Years

TWO YEARS SHY of being a centenarian, Lim Tze Peng is still thinking of his next artistic breakthrough: "I am motivated by my passion to constantly improve, and to create art to the best of my ability. There is no end to the inspirations I receive on a daily basis."

At 98, Lim has not hung up his palette and easel. Instead, he's just opened a new solo show at Ode To Art Gallery at Raffles City Shopping Centre, where he is showcasing a broad range of works, from landscape paintings executed early in his career to the abstract calligraphy that emerged during the experimental phases.

Though he's not as physically agile as he used to be, his mind is still sharp. He says: "Previously, I painted en plein air - meaning, I painted outdoors under the hot sun. I painted many old Singapore scenes of Chinatown and Singapore River. It was mostly: 'I see, and I paint'. After the rapid modernisation of Singapore and the disappearance of old Singapore, I started to paint from memory the scenes I remembered in my studio. This was the start of: 'I reflect, and I paint'."