Born in Amoy, China in 1912, Lim Cheng Hoe came to Singapore when he was 7. Primarily a self-taught artist, Lim studied art under Richard Walker, Singapore’s first Art Inspector of Schools, at the Raffles Institution in the early 1930s. Lim was a prominent and significant first generation artist due to his treatment of the local landscape in the watercolour medium and is associated with the Nanyang Style. He was also a founding member of the Singapore Watercolour Society. Lim passed away in 1979 in Singapore.Greenery and nature are recurring themes for Lim’s landscape paintings. From the late 1960s to early 1970s, the depiction of details was greatly reduced and Lim’s focus was to capture the atmospheric quality of a location. As is typical of his landscapes from this period, the paint is handled with great freedom. ‘A Corner of Nature’ shows dappled light in a tranquil park.
