Study of Calligraphic Brushwork in Singapore Watercolor Art

To cite this article: Ng Woon Lam. (2022). Study of Calligraphic Brushwork in Singapore Watercolor Art. Asia-Pacific Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(3), 088-100, DOI: 10.53789/j.1653-0465.2022.0203.011

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.53789/j.1653-0465.2022.0203.011

Abstract: This paper investigates the development of Singapore watercolor art. Although watercolor is a western painting medium, Singapore watercolor art adopted its concepts from both the traditional British watercolor and Chinese ink painting. While it inherited its painting techniques from the British watercolor, the concept of calligraphic brushwork was adopted in two diverse directions, one from the British watercolor and the other from the Chinese calligraphy and ink painting due to the diverse backgrounds of artists. The application of various forms of calligraphic brushwork and their developments have shown connections to their origins. However, deviations were observed as compared to contemporary western watercolor brushwork. The study has also uncovered how the abstraction of Chinese character design concept and ink painting compositions were adopted by contemporary regional artists. The outcomes have created potential applications in animation and digital painting, especially in the area of visual simplification.

Keywords: calligraphy; Singapore Watercolour; painting; brushwork

Notes on the contributor: Ng Woon Lam holds a Ph. D. in Education. He is an associate professor at School of Art Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University with an academic interest in western painting, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ink painting and art history. His email address is ngwoonlam@ ntu. edu. sg.

Ng Woon Lam Volume 2 Number 3 APJHSS.pdf