Beginnings
$ 3,200.00
Artist: Paul Koh
Year : 2024
Medium : Acrylic on Canvas
Size : 76cm x 61cm
In Beginnings, the quiet stillness of Vincent van Gogh’s white roses is gently disrupted. From within the vase of luminous blooms, a mischievous cat stirs—drawn out not by sight, but by scent. The familiar aroma of kopi rising from a traditional Nanyang cup becomes an invisible call, coaxing life into the canvas.
Here, “home” is not defined by walls or furniture, but by ritual and memory. The kopi cup—humble, everyday, deeply local—anchors the work in lived experience. Its fragrance suggests mornings shared, conversations begun, and the comfort of something known. It is this small, intimate signal that awakens the cat, as if responding to a call back to belonging.
The white roses, symbols of renewal and tenderness, hold the tension between stillness and movement. The vase becomes more than a vessel—it becomes a house of memory. And when the cat playfully emerges, the moment transforms: the still life is no longer static. It breathes. It returns. It welcomes.
Balancing homage and humour, Beginnings reflects the idea that coming home is often subtle. It is found in scent, in habit, in the gentle pull of familiarity. It is the spark that turns space into place.
The accompanying haiku captures this quiet awakening: Mischievous joy stirs,
Kopi and roses swirling—
Laughter blooms with ease.
In this work, “beginning” is a return—to warmth, to ritual, to the small joys that make a space feel like home. M
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