Pioneer artist Lim Cheng Hoe’s watercolours celebrated at National Gallery Singapore

Lim’s Balek Kampung (watercolour and ink on paper, 1946). Step into the past and see the beauty of the evolving Singapore landscape between the 1930s and 1970s at Lim’s Painting Singapore exhibition. Photos: National Gallery Singapore

For the best part of 30 years, pioneer Singapore artist Lim Cheng Hoe spent most of his week as a clerk in the Public Works Department, now the Public Utilities Board.

But on Sundays, he took to the outdoors with paints and brushes in hand to capture the scenes he loved – the many faces of the Singapore River and the kampungs of Pasir Panjang, Loyang and Bedok.