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Going to the Gala Dinner 2010, a charity event of Tan Tock Seng hospital was the most memorable time for me. The event was held at the Shangrila Hotel Singapore on 14 Oct 2010, and guess who was the guest of honour,.. none other than our Mr President of Singapore SR Nathan himself. Imagine my excitement when I was invited to do a caricature of a donor together with the President! The drawing was to be signed by the President personally before being framed up and sold to the highest bidder for this good cause.
At the scene, a photo of Mr President & the donor was taken by the official photographer instantly on the spot which was then downloaded into a laptop. Much to my surprise that the gentleman made a bid for a whopping 50K to have himself drawn beside the President in the picture. With a deep breath, I worked intensively to finish off the work when I heard how much my piece was worth! It took me 20 minutes to hand-draw the caricature from start to finish. Luckily it was done offstage, otherwise I would be a little nervous drawing in front of 300 guests would I have been called on stage to draw them live as originally planned. So I spent a little more time than usual to make sure that the resemblance was spot on. Even with all my experiences, I naturally felt a little pressure because.. Wow!.. this is the most expensive caricature I've done in my whole entire life. The finished piece was then presented to Mr President before giving it to that gentleman up on the stage.
It was a great privilege for me to chat and shake the hand of President SR Nathan. I also felt most honoured to be invited to contribute in ways that I can for this charitable cause and hope to be able to give back to the community again in the future. I'm happy to see that caricature is officially an art form that can bring value to public benefit besides being an entertaining novelty art.
I hope you enjoy viewing some of the photos I've uploaded. And I want to say a special thanks to Eunice Toh of TTSH for giving me this opportunity and making this event possible.
The Shangrila Hotel facade.
The hotel lobby from which I entered upon arrival.
Arrival of guests at the pre-function hall.
Guests were invited into the main ballroom & seated.
The arrival of the President.
A stage performance by a group of children.
My session started after the successful bidder was announced & photo being taken with the President.
The expensive caricature was in progress.
The completed caricature was being signed by the President.
A nice frame was put in place before being presented to the donor.
The moment has come for me to go up to the stage. Thanks Mr President for your warm chat & hand shake.
An honourable photo.
