The Making of "Recall" ( Part 1 )

In 1999, during Chinese New Year season, I was feeling very down because I was facing great challenges in my job. I also did not have a girl friend then. I knew my relatives would ask about my career prospects and whether I had a girl friend when they met me ( of course I knew they cared for me, but I was just too down to face anyone back then )...
At that time,I was living at Yishun, not too far away from sembawang park, so early morning I decided to leave house and go all the way to sembawang park, just wanted to aviod my relatives.
When I reached there, I could see many people at the beach - swimming, pinic, cycling, picking sea-shells...

When year 2001 approached, (Ha ! that was a year that I set my eyes on a lady called "Shirley", who is now my wife !), that was also the same year that I decided to do "Recall" painting.

Firstly, within all these years, I discovered I liked one of my sketches on my younger brother reading comics without shirt on [ Can see the sketch on "The Making Of Recall" (Part 2) ], and I often wondered how I could transfer that image into a painting...
At the same time, I also realized that I had been painting people indoors so far; so should try some outdoor painting... Almost instantly, the beach figures came across my mind!

Following that, I started thinking how I could include some God-filled message in the painting. There were quite a few historical events in the bible that happened by the beach or river-a wide selection to choose from. Finally, I decided to portray the event where Jesus preached from a boat, to the crowds who had gathered by the lake to listen to him. This event was then put in an interesting contrast to the present-day scenario of beach-goers pre-occupied in their activities...