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.Lim’s calligraphy works especially those executed between 2000 and 2002 show evidence of having evolved from the conventional scripts to an abstract one that is full of vigour and tension. Written here is a famous poem about life at the borders by Wang Changlin (690-756), a Tang dynasty poet and official who is best known for his poems on this subject.
