10-year-old artist paints to raise funds for under-privileged children
To a lot of 10-year-olds, ‘art' means doodling on a notebook or slapping some paint on art block paper. Ashley Ann Tan, though, is already holding the second art exhibition of her budding career. And like her first, which she held at the wee age of 7, this exhibition is also in aid of underprivileged children.
Tan will be holding her showcase from June 18 at The Pavilion @ Far East Square, where she will display a series of 14 pieces, titled Seasons Through My Eyes. One of the pieces, titled “Success”, is dedicated to the late founding father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.
"Singapore is a beautiful city. When I go for a holiday, I always feel homesick. Our country's success is because of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew. So, I would like to dedicate this painting - "Success" - to him,” she told Yahoo Singapore.
Tan’s new exhibition is a series of liquid art paintings using unconventional mediums, like baking equipment and kitchen utensils, a method which requires lots of discipline and focus – just mixing the paint alone takes up to an hour or more.
We asked her where she drew her artistic inspirations from. The CHIJ (Kellock) student admitted she usually doesn't know what her end product will look like. “Because it’s liquid art, it moves by itself, so I don’t even know it will turn out like this,” she said, adding she draws inspiration from the things around her.
The Seasons Through My Eyes exhibition got its name because Tan was quite literally inspired by the four seasons. “Even though there’s no four seasons in Singapore, I have experienced some of them overseas,” she said.
“I like to tell stories of how my day was and what I’m thinking about, and the feelings are captured when I paint. This makes each painting different because the stories are different. The colors are also unique because sometimes it’s difficult to mix and get the same color,” she added.
Her motivation
Ashley started painting at the age of four, when she was given a little artist kit with various painting tools. Since then, her passion for painting developed into a desire to help her less-privileged peers.
She staged her debut exhibition at age 7 to raise funds for several childrens’ charities, including the Singapore Children’s Society, The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (ST SPMF) and The Business Times Budding Artists Fund (BT BAF).
Since her first exhibition, Ashley has donated close to $25,000 to children charities.
Her most expensive piece, a 3D painting, was purchased by Resorts Worlds Sentosa as part of a fund-raising initiative for $20,000.
This time, she hopes to raise $30,000 for two charities – the ST SPMF, which disburses pocket money to low-income families, and the BT BAF, which provides fully-sponsored arts training for young people from financially-disadvantaged backgrounds.
Seasons Through My Eyes by Ashley Ann Tan will be officially launched on 18 June 2015, 7.30pm at The Pavilion @ Far East Square. The exhibition is open to the public on 19 June 2015 from 10am to 5pm
