Kuo Juping was a renowned pioneer artist of Malaysia whose impressionistic works capture the memories of a bygone era. He sought inspiration from the world around him, including the rustic landscapes, buildings, villages and animals. Here, Juping captures the grandeur of Kek Lok Si (Temple of Supreme Bliss), an architectural marvel built on Crane Hill which derived its name from its natural contours resembling the shape of a flying stork. The experience of light and air surrounded by natural foliage around the monastery conveys a gentle and tranquil mood. Kuo Juping (the name was taken after a water plant) was in the pioneering batch of students at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore but had to return a year before graduating to tend to his father’s import-export business, Sing Guan Thye & Co. He was a founding member of Thursday Art Group and Penang Chinese Art Club in 1936. He was one of the first artists to paint ordinary people and places such as rubber estates, oil palms, cocoa plantations, paddy fields, kampung and make-shift hawker centres. He was a mentor of Tan Choon Ghee (1930-2010) who became a legendary watercolourist.