Life focused

The everyday moments, often taken for granted, give meaning to existence.

These moments are what Lee Sing has given life to in her 30-piece collection entitled, Anonymous. The pieces were shown over two-days at the Art Society, Jamaica Blvd, Port-of-Spain on December 6 and 7.

Lee Sing’s drive to capture “life as is and not imagined” came from a visit to the doctor’s office. In a write up on the photo that became a painting, Lee Sing said, “Two years ago, I sat in a doctor’s waiting room, phone in hand, scrolling through social media sites to pass the time as I waited for my husband. I looked up and saw this couple...and I took their photo.

At the time, I did not feel any desire to speak with them or to invade their quiet. I simply wanted to capture that particular moment, the light in the room, her anxiety, his pain, their togetherness.” “This fleeting photograph has become a painting, which haunts me with its brooding reality.” The painting later became known as “Patience”.

For her, art’s connectedness allowed for her to give life to moments to which all walks and types of people could relate. In an interview with Newsday, she said, “The thing about art is connecting with people in the most unseen and incredible ways. The kinds of people I have met through in entire process and I say process because apart from painting and having a first exhibition - which I did not anticipate - my second exhibition was more planned. But what you cannot plan is the impact it would have on people.” Anonymous is Lee Sing’s second exhibition.

The first one was held when, “was learning to paint five years ago.” Its success was moderate.

Anonymous show a diversity of everyday events such as five friends who meet after work, the brothers who pray quietly, the retiree who can afford to buy new clothes but prefers to mend old clothes with his new sewing machine among others.

Draped in oils, watercolours, pastel and charcoals, Lee Sing’s images, “uses a layered technique, with clear lines and attention to details.” The content chosen “sparked her interest.” Each image captured with her cellphone’s camera when she saw them.“When you’re on the go, when you’re on a train, when you’re rounding a bend in Scarborough and you see something in a bus shelter or see something under the trees on the Promenade, as indeed the painting entitled “Five” is, or the painting entitled “Reflection” is about a bus shelter.

“You can capture it quickly, quickly, quickly, before the traffic moves..” “It is a moment that is lost and cannot be recaptured,” she said.

After capturing the moment on her cellphone camera, Lee Sing would then examine the photo, paying attention to the nuanced details.

“When I go back and review, I take time, I look at my photographs, I see all sorts of intriguing qualities. I would see that someone’s eye is damaged. I would see that someone has one breast higher than the other...” There were few “intriguing” moments that missed her eye. She recalled visiting friends at their beach house.

Her friend’s wife always played the piano with encouragement from him. His sister who had a stroke would play with her. “I found it interesting and I took a photograph with her husband with his Sunday beer in his hand. A year later as I was planning to prepare for the show. I selected a photo of them and I said I must capture this in painting, as I mentioned it to her husband, he said his sister passed away,” she said.

The painting became a surprise gift to his wife.

For Lee Sing these moments are the ones most people experience, which is why she feels it resonates so deeply.

“You and I have had those moments. We have an uncle we’ve visited on a Sunday afternoon because he’s not well. Many of us have had family and friends give us gifts like symbolic religious items that we keep and don’t discard.

“We have those moments in our lives.

So when you see it in a painting you would say ‘ahhhh I know that moment’ and that is what made me put it on canvas...I knew that along the way, someone can connect with one of these paintings in a special way,” she said, giving her impetus for the selections made.

She sold 30 percent of her work before the exhibition.

But Lee Sing’s ultimate aim is to make Anonymous accessible and affordable to most.

The focus for Lee Sing is always life.

“It is not hyper-realism.

It is what we see. It is life, focused,” she said.

The pieces range from $3,000 to $13,000.