Last Saturday was my third plein air session at Botanic Gardens with Mr Ong in as many years. The scene at the symphony lake was rather bland under the hot sun. As usual Mr Ong has done his homework scouting for the best angles. Through his unique artistic eyes he pointed out shapes and colours hidden from us. His instruction was simple: you have to simplify the scene, squint to see values. Then he finished off exclaiming: this is so nice. So that’s Mr Ong’s art, making extraordinary out of the mundane. He taught careful observations and insisted on painting outdoors to learn from nature in its full glory. Few artists have such wisdom and insight.

Mr Ong is a great teacher. Not only is he skilled in his art, he is very sensitive to the students’ pace of learning.

‘The compo is ok; the colour is good; very atmospheric; you correct yourself?’ These are the usual comments.

‘Let me match your colours; some shadows to bring up the 3D; how come you leave the picture for me to complete?’ The whole class laugh. These are already the real forceful comments.

Finally if you are really lucky: ‘you can sign here’, but so far we have not heard ‘ you can frame this one up’. The art is long that’s why students have become a family.