The passion of love tempered with grace and femininity springs from the crowded bouquet of red and pink roses in a glass vase. The bloom is staggered with one or two in clasped buds while some petals seem to have withered in surrender onto the mantle top. For all the efflorescence and beauty, its thorny stems spell danger. Still, the fragrance lingers. Roses may not be as popular as say lotus, peonies or Chrysanthemum in Chinese culture but the pervasion of Western influence has made roses a sought-after item during Chap Goh Meh, the Chinese Valentine Day, instead of the tradition of throwing mandarin oranges. For the versatile Singapore second-generation artist, flower paintings in the Western mould are one of his favourites apart from figures (and portraits) and nudes, landscapes, Singapore River scenes, street scenes and still-lifes in oil, acrylic, watercolours and woodcuts. Koeh Sia Yong is one of the few surviving stalwarts of Singapore’s cult Equator Art Society (formerly Chinese Research Society) which had a huge impact with its Social Realism narratives, and Koeh particularly for Persecution (1963) and murals for the Sentosa Wax Museum on the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation. He graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art, specialising in Western Painting in 1958, and worked as graphic designer, illustrator, newspaper cartoonist and movie billboard painter for Shaw Brothers. He is also known for his dossier on the Bukit Ho Swee squatter settlement fire (May 25, 1961).