Chong Siew Ying's dreamy monochrome of an evocative landscape is expressed with an aura of passing time and memory. The silhouette of distant mountains and trees seemingly swaying in the wind seem couched between Chinese landscape painting and Western pictorialism of depth and space. The artist's forte lies in the adroit play of the myriad shades of grey for atmospherics and a contemplative mood. Chong Siew Ying's art-career path is one of grit, determination and serendipity. Many would have stayed put after a Graphic Design diploma at the Petaling Jaya College of Art and Design. Instead Chong hightailed to Paris, where she worked as an au pair, to support her art studies at the L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Versailles (1991-1994) and L'Atelier 63 (1994-1996), and with solos at the Maison Tch'A, Atelier d'Maravel and Gallery Café Panique, to boot. On her return, she won an artist's residency at Rimbun Dahan, and later the Fremont Fellowship at Vermont Studio Centre, United States. In 2002, she won the Special Award in the Young Contemporary Artists (BMS) competition and in 2009, was a finalist in the Hong Kong Sovereign Art Prize. She also had her solo at Valentine Willie Fine Art, and at The Edge Galerie a few years back.