Artist Ong Kim Seng looks back at turbulent 'SG25' commissions for SG60

Watercolourist Ong Kim Seng counts former United Nations chief Kofi Annan among his collectors and his commissions can go for five figures today. But he recalls how his first big commission in 1984 came in at just $120 a piece.

- Shawn Hoo

"You paint, but nobody buys. So, you've got to depend on illustrations," says the 80-year-old self-taught artist.

Back in 1983, he had just won an award from the American Watercolour Society. Staff writer Jackie Sam from erstwhile newspaper Singapore Monitor, on the referral of theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun, was about to give Ong the commission that would change his life.

Tableaus from Singapore history — some turbulent, like the anti-Catholic riots of 1851, others mythic like a miracle spring in Radin Mas — were what Sam asked for to mark the 25th anniversary of Singapore's full internal self-government in 1959.

To modern readers, this might sound like a peculiar, even depressing, way to celebrate SG25. To Ong, he was whipped up to render "the days of hurricane and storm" as visual accompaniments to Sam's historical deep dives.

It was a genre that Ong, better known for his serene plein air scenes, had never touched and would never quite work in again. "Jackie did not have photographs — they happened very long ago — so he had to get a mad artist to think of all this."