Tan Kah Wah

Born: 1945

Hometown: Singapore

Based in: Singapore

Kah Wah was born in Singapore and was in a corporate human resource career before becoming a self-taught commercial photographer in 1990 and is still in commercial practice today. From the ’70s, he self-taught himself in oil and painted leisurely out of interest in colours and through the inspiration of the many impressionistic-style artworks he saw in books and museums.

He sees painting as an extension of the creativity found in photography.

Not being schooled in any way in art, he paints intuitively….covering spaces, putting in marks and letting the painting emerge itself over time. Increasingly, oil has ceased to be the main medium and both oil/chalk pastels, Chinese ink, watercolour pencils have been mixed together as an experimental process to accommodate the Eastern techniques of calligraphic painting.

Not being able to be a realistic painter, he has to use raw and rough techniques to bring out his images.