(SINGAPORE) Members of the public at the Paragon broke into applause as British artist Stephen Wiltshire completed his drawing of the Singapore cityscape last evening.
The audience included Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Singapore Press Holdings chairman Lee Boon Yang, SPH CEO Alan Chan, and Member of Parliament and special needs activist Denise Phua.
Renowned for being able to draw detailed sketches after viewing the subject just once, Mr Wiltshire, 40, took a helicopter ride with the Republic of Singapore Air Force last Tuesday to get an aerial view of the city.
He began drawing Singapore’s cityscape from memory on Wednesday morning seated on a high chair and plugged into music from his iPhone, in full view of the public from 10am to 5pm every day. The finished four-metre by one-metre artwork, commissioned by SPH to mark its 30th anniversary is part of the ‘See the Big Picture' exhibition. The piece will be presented to President Tony Tan as a gift to the nation to mark Singapore’s 50th anniversary next year. Mr Wiltshire has done drawings of Hong Kong, London and New York and has a permanent gallery in London’s Royal Opera Arcade.