Meet the correspondents: SINGAPORE > Tia Boon Sim

“Everyone calls me Tia and I am an architect by training but choose to be an art and design educator in Singapore.

Since April 2007, I have been spending most of my Saturday mornings combing the streets in Singapore. I started a location drawing on Club Street after buying two beautiful sketchbooks and there is no stopping since. I use Lamy foundation pens to draw and sometimes, in watercolors. I love to wander around Club Street lined with two rows of buildings which are called ‘shophouses’ in Singapore.

Shophouses are ornamented with classical motifs and typified by a connected covered walkway called ‘five-foot way’ on the ground floor. I also like to feel the mood, hear the street sounds from the beautiful rejuvenated street that is so rich in history and yet so modern and lively.

This drawing is done sitting outside a café with my morning coffee at the five-foot way across the street. The power of sketching and drawing on location is dynamic and Club Street acts as a catalyst to encourage cultural dialogue across generations.

Club Street is a place where I will never tire of exploring day and night. It is exuberant, mystical, charming and a happening place. Club Street, like other rejuvenated areas, is also a place filled with wild, unruliness, chaos and decadence because of the number of nightclubs, pubs and spas that had mushroomed in the recent years in the neighborhood.”

• Tia’s blog.
• Tia’s art on Flickr.
• Tia’s website.