This painting is the artist’s impression of an old photograph of Madam Neo Kim Neo, a Singapore Peranakan well known for her beadwork skills. She is doing beadwork in the traditional way, on the floor with a wooden frame clipped onto a wooden frame holder. The artist, who is a Peranakan, has been using old photographs in her recent work. She admits the subject matter is an important link to her Peranakan heritage. A notable feature of her paintings is the limited use of colour, the neutral tones which Oon describes as the ‘unofficial colour of memory’. By translating the images in photographs into paintings using broad brushstrokes, Oon feels she is able to create fresh layers of meaning and nuance in her works.
