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.A lover of boats, Lim painted countless works of them. Even when overseas, he sought out boats as this painting is of a ship repair dock in Thailand shows. Reflecting his background of a calligrapher, he uses lines to depict the men at work, while a cluster of ships are seen in the far horizon. In the SAM collection is another painting similarly composed, with the same title and from the same year.
