Ceiling art a tapestry of love for nature

Artwork on tiles, depicting life that can be found in Sungei Buloh, is now up at a wooden shelter for park visitors to enjoy

By Jane Lee

TUCKED away in a little wooden shelter in Sungei Buloh Nature Park near Kranji is a ceiling mosaic of colourful tiles that has been drawing admiring glances from visitors.

Each tile was individually painted by students from Commonwealth Secondary in a six-week community project.

There are 1,800 tiles in all and they depict the flora and fauna that are found in the park, such as herons, kingfishers and horseshoe crabs.

When put together, the colourful tiles in vivid hues of yellow, orange, red and blue give the effect of a giant tapestry being stretched across the ceiling of the shelter.

The shelter is about 7 m by 8 m and is the biggest in the park. It overlooks the mangrove swamps, and from this vantage point, visitors have a view of Johor Baru across the sea.

Accounts executive Irene Liew, 29, who chanced upon the ceiling mosaic during a visit two weeks ago, said: 'I was pleasantly surprised to find such lovely art work at a shelter. It adds to the ambience of the park.'

The National Parks Board invited the school at Jurong East to do up the ceiling because it found out that the students were good in art.

Miss Ruth Ng, the school's art coordinator, said: 'It was a very satisfying experience because the students were not just painting tiles for art lessons, but they were also painting them for the community.'

Each 'tile' is actually a thin wooden board and measures 18 cm by 18 cm. The students used acrylic paint because it is waterproof and each of them produced at least four tiles.

The 350 students, who are now in Secondary 3, did most of the work during art lessons in school. The National Parks Board hired a carpenter to mount the tiles on the ceiling.

The students said they get a kick out of seeing their creations in a public place.

Xu Zhi Qiang, 14, took about 10 hours to paint 20 birds of various colours onto just one square tile.

He said with a grin: 'I feel great that the public will get to see my work.'