[Not titled] (Stalls by Fullerton Building) and [Not titled] (Stalls under Tree by Fullerton Building)

Take a look at the two paintings before you. They both depict the same place, but there are obvious differences between them. For instance, the large tree over the stalls in the painting on the left does not appear in the painting on the right. This could highlight the changes that occurred around the Fullerton building between the time the two works were made.

But there are subtler differences as well. For instance, look at how the colours of these paintings differ. As we heard in the previous stop, Lim would paint many of his works plein-air, capturing scenes as they appeared to him. Plein-air works, such as these, are usually shaped by the environmental conditions the painter faces at the time he is painting, such as the weather or time of day. So even though these two works were painted in the same location from the same perspective, the different conditions in which they were painted created different tonalities and moods. Studio painting, in contrast, usually requires the painter to have a very fixed image in mind of what he or she wishes to paint.

In this section of the exhibition, the curators have selected similar pairs of paintings which Lim executed over his many years of painting. Through these paintings, we can see how he was able to revisit the same locations over and over again and still create something new each time, focusing on not just a sense of place, but also a sense of time.