Born in Singapore in 1964, Jimmy Ong won the 1980 UOB Painting of the Year Competition (Youth 2nd Prize), and during the mid-1980s to early-1990s received scholarships to study in the USA and in Italy. Accomplished in sculpture and painting, Ong’s trademark are his expressive charcoal drawings.As with Ong’s ‘Trees And Building’ (I–III) executed in the same year, the triptych ‘Fruits & Lotus Flowers’ is presented as a leisurely sketch completed in situ. The quiet scene of two vases filled with lotus flowers, in various stages of bloom, and fruit loosely grouped on a table in front of a barred window, reflects peace and contemplation, coincidentally represented spiritually and symbolically in Asia by the lotus itself. Ong’s charcoal lines and shading vary in quality and tonality, and if compared to his charcoal sunflower drawings completed several years later, appear heavy and painterly.
