The art of painting orchids has been much appreciated in both East and West. For example, Cymbidium Orchid Blossoms have long featured in Chinese Paintings. In Europe in the nineteenth century, coloured illustrations long pre-dated the invention of coloured photographs. They were important for botanists and growers, to preserve the characteristics of the plants they described, catalogued and tried to grow. Many of the earlier botanical illustrators were famous for the quality and painstaking care of their paintings.

With the advent of orchid hybridisation, the interest in orchid paintings continued. Appreciation was not confined to the accuracy of paintings done for botanical purposes, but embraced the aesthetic and artistic merits of orchid portraits. The Royal Horticultural Society, which maintained records of orchid hybrids and gave awards to the most outstanding new hybrids, commissioned paintings of these awarded flowers.

Tan Cheng Cheng is in this aesthetic tradition, portraying orchids in arrangements that bring out the striking beauty and grace of the flowers. Looking at her paintings we recognise the orchids but see also how the artist has contrived a setting uniquely suited to each one. Orchids provide an inexhaustible challenge to the artist, through the variety of their shape and colour. With much labour and care Tan Cheng Cheng has provided an undoubtedly Singapore's premier painter in this genre, and her dedication and fascination with the subject is obvious.

On behalf of the Orchid Society of South East Asia, I warmly congratulate her on her achievement and welcome one and all to this beautiful exhibition of her work.