Born in 1923, Lim Tze Peng is largely a self-taught artist. In his oeuvre, ink paintings and calligraphic works feature prominently, although there is a small number of oils, watercolours and drawings. He created a unique style of ink painting using rich brush and tonal details, and this approach is often regarded as a manifestation of the Nanyang Style in the ink medium. Lim, a school principal until his retirement in the early 1980s, was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the Singapore government in 2003.Having grown up in a ‘kampong’ (Malay for village), the idyllic life of rural communities is a favourite and recurring theme for Lim. Perhaps in a bid to recapture the early memories, he has produced countless paintings of the life and activities of local villagers which today serve as visual reminders of a bygone era.
