Inspired by street life

TAN Choon Ghee, known for capturing the elusive moments of Penang street life in pearly watercolours, has died. His demise last Tuesday – 28 days shy of his 81st birthday – came barely two weeks of the passing of another Penang art elder, Tan Lye Hoe (1938-2010).

In his plein-air paintings of ordinary people at work and leisure, Choon Ghee (as he was called) imbibes the mood and ambience of once-upon-a-time places with languid strokes and an awkward rhythm, and in ceaseless motions.

His sable brushes are able to elegantly capture the intriguing nuances of light with an exquisite interplay of “local” colours, a pearly quality derived from a gorgeous mix of ultramarine and turquoise.

People figure significantly in his works of watercolours, oil, and ink and wash, despite usually being dwarfed by the imposing backdrop of architecture, and in the case of Penang, the Straits Eclectic facades.

The Chaplinesque cast of anonymous people gets walk-in roles in his timeless works of changing scenes: ubiquitous hawkers and their patrons, itinerant Indian barbers, trishaw peddlers at rest, customers at mamak stalls with makeshift canopies and awnings, market vendors, labourers , port workers and tramps.

Deft contours and subtle shades add the lilt to his simplified figures, reflecting the rigorous regime he went through at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, from 1957-59, under taskmasters Sir William Coldstream and William Townshend. Not surprisingly, Choon Ghee’s style emulates the pure tradition of British watercolours as exemplified by Sir Russell Flint.

His Penang art staples feature animated places such as the Leong San Tong (Khoo Kongsi), the Kapitan Keling Mosque, Kek Lok Si, Kwan Im Teng, Nagore Jugah Shrine, Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion and the “heritage precincts” alleyways of Toh Aka Lane, Armenian Street and Cannon Square.

His works are known to best represent the heart and soul of Penang, once the dazzling Pearl of the Orient.

Outside Penang, Choon Ghee imposed an elegiac quality and freshness to the places he visited and painted. Quaint gables of Amsterdam canals, arias of Venetian gondolas, vistas of the romantic Seine or foggy Thames, as well as popular sights in Spain, Portugal, France, England, Australia, Germany, Austria, Singapore and Hong Kong.

His works are also known for their sound draftsmanship and composition, skills honed from his stints as set designer with Hong Kong Television Broadcasting (HKTVB) and TV Malaysia in Singapore, besides his training at the Australian Broadcasting Commission under a Colombo Plan scholarship (1969/70).

His ink and wash works are imbued with the stark quality of rough-hewn spontaneous strokes as well as artistic merit and presence, a blend of Eastern and Western approaches. There is also his play with empty spaces.

Once, during a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth, he recorded with alacrity life aboard the liner, which seemed to have held a special place in his heart.

Although he was already painting at the age of 13, Choon Ghee received his art tutelage between 1949 and 1951 at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Art, the alma mater of his first mentor, Kuo Juping (1908-1966).

He decided to go into art full-time after returning from Hong Kong at the end of 1967, and had to struggle hard in the early years. That he survived for 43 years as a full-time artist and achieved considerable fame – but not fortune – is in no small measure due to his giftedness, his redoubtable talents and immaculate foundation in art, and his honesty to his art.

Humble and reclusive, Choon Ghee persevered and perfected his signature style with dedication and devotion, carving masterpieces on street life with great sensitivity and the skills of a film-maker.

He never looked back after his first solo exhibition at the Hooi Ann Association in Penang in 1956.

In 1992, The Art Gallery Penang, a private setup, held a Retrospective exhibition of his works. Eight years later, the Penang State Art Gallery honoured him with a “lifetime achievement” Retrospective.

Choon Ghee’s legacy of extraordinary paintings is a lyrical paean to the joie de vivre and the conviviality of crowded places, and to life itself. His art works are about familiar strangers, mostly faceless, meeting and sharing a space in time, all through the empty chatter and the shuffling of feet, in an eternal silence. Sheer magic!

Malaysia, and Penang, in particular, has lost a truly great artist!