Sim Tong Khern is an early Singapore artist and art educator. An accomplished painter, he was a founding member of the informal Singapore art group, Group 90. For almost three decades, he taught art as an art lecturer at the Teachers' Training College (TTC) and Institute of Education (ITE) and nurtured generations of art teachers.

Sim Tong Khern was born on 26 February 1930 in Singapore. From 1937 to 1951, he studied at the Anglo Chinese School and attended Chinese classes at Tuan Mong School and Tao Nan School, attaining his Senior Cambridge Certificate in 1951.

Sim had been interested in art from a very early age. He loved to draw as a young boy, and became, quite possibly, Singapore’s first street artist when he began drawing on public streets next to the Singapore River where he lived. His large-scale public art works drew a lot of attention from passers-by, boatmen and workers in the area. In the early days, Sim was intrigued by all forms of art. Hungry for knowledge, he found much to learn in art books that he sought out in the public library and in friends' collections. Later on, he got to meet other artists, including famous pioneer artist and watercolourist Lim Cheng Hoe, and began painting outdoors with them on weekends.

Keen on pursuing formal art studies, Sim became a trainee teacher and successfully applied for the Colombo Plan Scholarship in 1957. Under the scholarship, he travelled to Australia with other fellow trainee teachers and, from 1957 to 1961, majored in art at the National Art School in Sydney. This resulted in a Diploma in Art (Painting) and a six-month Junior Fellowship visiting arts and education institutes around Australia.

Upon his return to Singapore in 1961, Sim began teaching art and literature at Jurong Secondary School. He taught there for two years and then, in 1963, joined the Teachers' Training College (TTC) and Institute of Education (ITE) where he became an art lecturer. In the years that followed, Sim furthered his studies twice in the ’70s. In 1970, he took a year’s study leave and travelled to London where he received further art and art education training at the University of London's Institute of Education and also took up print-making at the Central School of Design in London. Sim returned to Singapore with an Associateship of The Institute of Education, University of London. Later in 1979, he took sabbatical leave and went to the US where, after two years of study, he obtained a Masters in Art with a focus on art and art education from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.

During the ’70s and ’80s, while Sim lectured at TTC and ITE, he was concurrently an adjunct teaching staff member in the Department of Architecture at the University of Singapore. There, he taught Basic Design to first-year students for 13 years. For some years, he also taught art part-time at the Hwa Chong Junior College, and conducted art and design classes for adults at various institutions. Despite the challenges of juggling multiple jobs, Sim found meaning in his work.

"When you are involved in art education, you are dealing with people in terms of developing their knowledge of the subject, exposing them to examples of art and hoping that indirectly they would…have a chance to develop their talents", explains Sim. "We try our very best to help those who are talented in their own way, through encouragement, through stimulation, through the sharing of interest, and through dialogue to build their confidence in the subject, and hopefully to allow them to create their own [space] to engage in artistic expression."

Throughout his teaching career, Sim continued working on his art practice, painting at night after work and on weekends. Although he drew and painted frequently, he did not exhibit his works often. Among the various exhibitions he participated in were a major show in 1969 for the 20th anniversary of the Singapore Art Society, a personal exhibition of his drawings and sketches in 1976, a major show in 1984 to celebrate 25 Years of Art in Singapore, and 1988’s Resurgence: An Art Exhibition by four Singapore artists at the Goethe Institute, Singapore.

Amidst a hectic schedule balancing work and art-making, Sim was spurred on by several awards he received for his art in the ’70s. These included prizes for designing the first commemorative Silver Coin in Singapore and for the design of a set of stamps on the theme of science and technology, a prize at the first mural design competition organised by the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, and another at an art competition in London organised by the Association of the British Commonwealth. A decade later, in 1988, he was appointed Chief Judge of the seventh UOB Painting of the Year competition.

The following year, in 1989, Sim became a founding member of Singapore art group, Group 90. Founded and led by Joseph McNally, it was an informal group of experienced artists, designers and professionals committed to the study of the human figure as artistic expression. Sim, who had always had an interest in drawing both the landscape and the human figure, and painted en plein air landscapes regularly, was finally able to draw the human figure from observing a life model, something that he had not had the opportunity to do in Singapore.

Shortly after, in 1990, Sim retired from teaching. In an almost three-decade-long teaching career, he nurtured the artistic interest and talents of generations of students and trainee teachers. "An art educator is quite different from an artist", emphasises Sim. "The artist would have the focus on the production of art form. An art educator…is basically a teacher, concerned about theory and practice, as well as methodology, pedagogical approaches… there are many factors where an art educator [has] been able to reach the younger people," he says. "Because of that, I think it is worthwhile for one to be both—an art educator as well as an artist".

For an artist who has always been fascinated by nature, its myriad landscapes and the human figure, Sim's post-retirement years have been vastly rewarding. Since retiring, Sim has travelled extensively to countries such as China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, UK, US, France, Norway and Switzerland to paint and visit their art galleries. "I [was] really stimulated by what I saw", he says. He has also taken part in many studio and outdoor painting excursions, often with groups of fellow artists, and still takes part in Group 90 life drawing sessions today.

Sim continues to work on his art. Lucid, vivacious works in colour, his paintings are influenced by Impressionism and are mostly rendered in oil or acrylic, sometimes in watercolour. "Now I paint to keep my mind and body active," he says. "Despite the normal process of ageing, my good vision and mobility are advantages in the creative process and outburst of energy."