Artist Inspiration - Lee Kow Fong

I first knew who Lee Kow Fong (Taiwanese) was after visiting his exhibition at the Singapore Arts House. The exhibition is titled "The Colour of Silence", or 《静声》, by artist Lee Kow Fong. The main message that he presented to the audience is in the form of a question, which is "If silence were a color, what color would it be?"

Examples of his works

Why he inspires me

1. Lee Kow Fong uses watercolour most often in his works.

I love how watercolour gives such a light and fresh feeling compared to acrylic and oils, which give a very thick and rich texture. Watercolour gives everything a very beautiful finish, and I think the watercolour paints work very well with his designs. Watercolour is also very hard to control, because of its watery texture that tends to bleed. Layering watercolour paints on top of each other is very challenging too, as the colour you applied before that may mix with the next color because of the large amount of water present. Thus I admire Lee Kow Fong a lot for daring to work with watercolor in so many of his works.

2. He is very creative

The combination of the subject matters are so unexpected and interesting. How can a girl have tree branches that resemble reindeer horns growing out of her head? How can birds perch on top of each other on a girl's head, while she makes a phone call in the midst of a cornfield, where the plants are taller than her? I love how unique Lee Kow Fong is, and how he manages to pull everything together with his unique and special arrangement of subject matter.

3. He dares to work with cartoons

Nowadays, no one dares to work with cartoons. Many think that this is of lower class and not as outstanding as painting realistically. In the cartoon industry, one either makes it or breaks it. If one makes it, he becomes famous like Walt Disney or Doctor Seuss, but there are many other artists who paint in a cartoon-like style and stay unknown. Thus no one dares to draw cartoons, as they are scared that they may fail. I think that Lee Kow Fong having most of his works done in a cartoon-style is very brave of him. Furthermore, the exhibition I attended was his first solo exhibition containing his first few works, which shows how he dared to take the first step to paint in a cartoon-like manner.


How he inspires me

After viewing his exhibition, I became less afraid to do watercolour works. Personally, I love watercolour and do much better in it than oils or acrylic. However, for practical assignments, almost everyone uses acrylic and oils, and this leaves me feeling very insecure, as I'm afraid to use watercolour when everyone is doing something different. After seeing how he uses watercolour for almost all of his works, I decided that I should not be shy or insecure about using watercolour, and I have been using watercolour much more often since viewing his exhibition.

I do not really know many artists who work with cartoons. When I saw his works, I got very excited, as I have always been drawing cartoons since young. I really want to work with cartoons, but with all my classmates around me painting in realistic styles, I did not dare to work with cartoons, as I was afraid my teachers would mark me down. However, seeing one artist produce so many pieces of work that are filled with cartoons inspired me to start trying to work with cartoons for school assignments. In the end, I ended up having children as my target audience for my coursework, and every single one of my animal containers are done in a cartoon style. It is thanks to Lee Kow Fong that I got the courage to work with cartoons.


Lee Kow Fong has become one of my favourite artists, and has also given me inspiration for my coursework. His watercolour works are so beautiful that I feel inspired to paint with watercolour as often as possible. The recent anime and cartoons I draw in my own free time are all painted with watercolour, as I love the finish that watercolour gives. If not for Lee Kow Fong, I would not bother painting my drawings. I am very glad I visited Lee Kow Fong's exhibition.