Throughout his lifetime, Tan Choon Ghee sought inspiration from the streets of Penang, creating a body of work that captures the livelihood and daily activities of life on the island. His captivating streetscapes display diversity in a multicultural society, distinguished by the figures’ attire, occupation and dwelling. Illustrated here is a nostalgic scene of a row of shophouses with a group of trishaw riders resting beneath a tree, skilfully rendered in watercolour. Tan Choon Ghee completed his secondary education from Chung Ling high school in 1948 and graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art in Singapore in 1951. He then attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1957 to 1959. In his lifetime, he received a painting scholarship from the German government and an Australian government television set design scholarship. He worked for TV Singapore and TV Broadcast Ltd in Hong Kong prior to becoming a full time artist. He had held numerous one-man shows, with his first in 1956 at the Hooi Ann Association, Penang followed by in 1958, 1962 and 1963 organised by the British Council, Penang; National Library in Singapore (1962 and 1970); Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur (1983 and 1993) among others. Tan had also been honoured with two retrospective exhibitions in 1996 and 2000; a tribute show in Kuala Lumpur (2009) and a recent posthumous solo exhibition titled A Lifetime of Drawings showcasing his sketchbooks and paper works at the Penang State Art Gallery (2014).