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.Although Lim is well known for his representation style of painting, there is a small number of abstract works in his oeuvre. ‘Boats’ is a semi-abstract work where the boats in the foreground are clearly identifiable while geometric shapes and lines in the background suggest a cluster of other boats.
