Dato' Tay Hooi Keat painted in oil, watercolours, gouache, ink and also did linocuts and woodcuts besides sculptures in bronze and plaster-of-paris. His styles run the gamut of Academic Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. His early forays into art when schooling saw him winning several prizes for his watercolours in the annual MAHA (Malayan Agri-Horticultural Association) art competitions in Kuala Lumpur. This abstract painting exemplifies the artist's exploration of colour and form. A network of graceful, fluid lines in varied strokes are accented with red, green, blue, yellow, white strokes with expressiveness. Dato' Tay Hooi Keat graduated from the Camberwell School of Art, London in 1952. On his return, he was made the Penang Superintendent of Art and then the Federal Inspectorate of Art in the Education Ministry when Malaya attained Independence in 1957. He was the founding treasurer of the Penang Chinese Art Club, and was chairman of the Penang Museum Art Gallery (PMAG) board of trustees from 1964 to 1989. He was the first artist to be awarded a Dato'ship in 1986. He rarely had solo exhibitions since his first at the Penang Library in 1947. In 1980, the PMAG gave him a tribute exhibition and in 1983 the National Art Gallery honoured him with a retrospective.