Edwin and his potted plant

I love chairs. I love looking at them and painting them. I also like to sit on them sometimes! This is inspired by my online friend and fellow ukulele player, and the sofa he sits on when he plays his ukulele! When he shared a photo of him on it with me, I spotted a potted plant beside it, and I had to make that a part of my painting. This painting is not based on the photo at all. I enjoy painting from memory instead of looking at photographs. I find that my feelings and understanding of who they are guides me better than how they look on a photo. It also gives me space to weave lots of imaginary and interesting things into my paintings! The challenge for me is to capture a likeness of the person in a fun and vivid way. The end result here is my attempt to show a side of Edwin which one cannot quite tell from a simple snapshot - his love for his uke, the sofa and his potted plant! I have linked a video of Edwin playing his ukulele here.

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Joo has a master's degree in fine arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute and Technology. Before moving to Tasmania in 2017, she had taken part in exhibitions regularly in Singapore, where she was born. She paints in acrylics, gouache and water colours. She also loves drawing with dip pens, ink and colouring with colour pencils. Her favourite subject matter are people, who they are, what they do and the clothes they wear. Most of the people she paints are people she has met or known, and some of them are fictional. A lover of children picture book illustrations, Joo also enjoys writing her own stories and poems, which she then makes paintings for. Her style ranges from semi-realistic to quirky and whimsical.