IT STARTED off as a fundraising event by our colleagues from social work. Pay any due amount for a canvas and some paint, and the excess goes to charity. They then displayed the canvases at an auction to raise more money for TTSH Charity Fund, which is a fund for our less-fortunate patients. 

First round of canvas painting, the rooster painting in the background garnered $3000

The response for the art jamming session went so well that our own department’s social committee (yeap I am a member haha what’s new) decided to organize a second round. This time, however, we wanted to hire an external instructor and run it as a workshop on a weeknight. 

The instructor was a really talented gentleman, and we had so much fun over the course of 2 hours. We were introduced to aquarelle, which is a technique of painting with thin transparent watercolours. He brought along pictures for you to practice “copying” so to speak, but one can easily get ideas from a Google search or just paint creatively.

Watercolour painting is definitely more forgiving than acrylic painting. We were taught how to handle different brushes and strokes, how to add water to dilute paints and so mistakes can easily be covered up; you will still end up with a pretty neat looking piece!

I had 3 pieces done that evening – a flamingo, a blue whale and a fat bird. I was especially pleased with my flamingo considering how poorly I thought I did with my cat on the earlier acrylic canvas.

We ended the session with a short award ceremony, a watercolour set for the best painter! It was a lovely experience immersing in art after a hard day’s work, particularly for us arty-fartsy occupational therapists.

SG Art Class is highly recommended, the instructors are available to conduct onsite or offsite workshops and even private classes. Great for corporate events too, as we did. Their painting workshops are usually the more popular of classes but they run a range from calligraphy to polymer clay and caricature drawing. Find out more about SG Art Class here.

Photos courtesy of social committee photographer Darren Tey