A Lemony bottle

This painting was created during a still-life session at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, capturing a simple arrangement that unexpectedly transformed in the process of observation and mark-making. As the painting developed, the lemon gradually began to resemble a duck, revealing how perception can shift through the act of painting itself.

For me, it was the first time I truly believed in the power of brushstrokes—not merely as a means of representation, but as living gestures capable of breaking form and creating new meanings. The strokes disrupted the certainty of the object, allowing it to become something more animated and alive. What began as an exercise in still life evolved into a discovery: that a painting breathes through its marks, and that sometimes it is in the breaking of form that an image finds its vitality.