Tan Choon Ghee was born in Penang in 1930. He travelled to Singapore in the late 1940s to enrol at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), graduating in 1951. He went on to further his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1957-1959. He was subsequently awarded a scholarship from the German government to study art in Germany. During this time, he travelled extensively in Europe before returning to Penang to settle in 1969.Tan is noted as being influenced by fellow Penang-based artist Kuo Ju Ping (1908-1966), who had graduated from NAFA earlier in 1940, and masters of his favoured medium of watercolour, such as Yong Mun Sen (1896-1962) and Abdullah Ariff (1904-1962).As a key second generation artist working primarily in the medium of watercolour, Tan is known for his deft application of watercolour and ink on paper. He painted a large number of works during his time spent in Europe, and was particularly inspired by the distinctive architectural features of Venice set against its iconic waterways that Tan would seek to capture repeatedly in his art.
