This Lim Tze Peng abstract calligraphy painting stands out for its fiery backdrop to match the robust calligraphic strokes done in his ‘great freehand ink style’ which could purport certain meanings. With the cue from the title, Songs Of The Heart, it invariably veers to something passionate. His inspirations include Huang Binhong, Li Keran, and calligraphers Kang Youwei and Yu Youren. Since 2007, Lim has been painting more indoors. His works integrating painting and calligraphy stem from analogy of trees, trunk and roots, and his calligraphy which he dubbed hutuzi (muddled calligraphy) may well denote or symbolize these. In Inroads: Lim Tze Peng’s New Ink Work, Teo Han Wue (director of the Art Retreat Museum) wrote: “For Lim, brushwork is evergreen like the tropical trees with their trunks and branches entwined, presenting possibilities as boundless as the free cursive strokes in the calligraphic work…” Wrote Kwok Kian Chow in Realist Sojourn, Expressionist Return: “… trees serve as a conduit between xieyi and realism for Lim. They may be seen in both the ink aesthetics context of cosmological naturalism, tianren heyi (the union of Nature and man), and the realism of Nanyang sceneries.” Self-taught Lim Tze Peng was awarded Singapore’s Cultural Medallion in 2003, the Commonwealth Art Exhibition Special Prize in 1977, the Public Administration Medal in 1963 and the Public Service Medal in 1981. After finishing high school in 1948, he taught for 30 years, retiring as a school principal of Xinmin Secondary School in 1981. His work, Singapore River Scene (1978) set a record price HK$620,000 at the HK Christie’s auction in May 2012. His latest exhibition Soul Of Ink: Lim Tze Peng at 100, was held at The Arts House, Singapore in 2021.