Lim Kay Hiong is a Chinese ink painter. At the tender age of six, Lim moved to Singapore from Shantou and was later trained locally by pioneer artists Fan Chang Tien and Shi Xiangtuo. In 1966, he graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and was later the co-founder of the Molan Art Association. In 2005, he received a merit award for Beijing’s 1st International Chinese Poetry, Calligraphy, Painting & Seal-carving Grand Exhibition. To date, Lim has held over five solo exhibitions and has his works collected by local and foreign institutions, as well as private collectors around the world.
While Lim commonly worked with Chinese ink in his oeuvre, he also engaged with other materials, such as pencil on paper. As the artwork’s name suggests, Lim depicts several students learning how to sketch. In his simple yet detailed line work, the artist concisely captures the focused gaze of the two students in the foreground, who appear eager to engage with the arts.
