Born in 1923, Lim Tze Peng is largely a self-taught artist. In his oeuvre, ink paintings and calligraphic works feature prominently, although there is a small number of oils, watercolours and drawings. He created a unique style of ink painting using rich brush and tonal details, and this approach is often regarded as a manifestation of the Nanyang Style in the ink medium. Lim, a school principal until his retirement in the early 1980s, was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the Singapore government in 2003.Many of Lim’s paintings of street life and local scenes capture a slice of early Singapore that has now disappeared. Street hawkers once very much part of the social fabric, have all been relocated to food centres. This painting of a satay seller and his patrons under a large sturdy tree is thus a reminder of a bygone era.
