Diana Lim Tiong Har 林中霞 is Singapore’s third generation Nanyang artist. She graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1987. She is currently an art teacher teaching painting to adult learners.
Diana Lim is also a cat lover. She grew up with cats and had cats throughout her life, up until recently.
One day, ten years after she first started painting, the Singapore artist decided to paint what she like, her cats. She added her first cat, subtly into the watercolour landscape that she was painting.
And since then, she never stopped creating paintings of cats.
In her watercolour paintings, the cats are realistic looking in a real environment, often added discreetly into the scene.
In her acrylic paintings, the cats are as wild as her imagination. They have their own character and story and live in a colourful place.
These cats become her indulgence, where they live out a life that she secretly dreams of.
The cats wear accessories that she loves but doesn’t dare to put on. They are placed with things that she loves such as her childhood green curtains, dried flowers, and all things blink-blink. They do all sorts of stuff that she wants too but is unable to.
Painting these “Diana cats” give her freedom and joy, and this happiness can be seen from the paintings.
Diana’s acrylic cat paintings are light-hearted and whimsical, bright and vibrant, imaginative and dreamy.
And when we look at these paintings, we can feel that the artist had a good time painting them, and we too are sharing in this pure happiness.
Watch Diana Lim 林中霞 share more stories of her paintings of cats in this video.
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