Bashful First Fire of Dawn

An unexpectedly shy and sensible demeanour – could this really be Dawn Kwan, the 11-year-old art prodigy whose paintings have been selling for thousands since she was five?

By Huang Nickmatul / Home Concepts
Photography courtesy of Jonathan Sim Location
Thanks to Praser Place

IN THIS WORLD OF HYPERBOLE, a writer hesitates to use superlatives. Nowadays, saying something is the best, ingenious, fabulous, fantastic and so on seems to automatically heighten people’s scepticism. Yet “prodigy” is the first word that comes to mind when one wants to speak of Dawn Kwan.

Looking at Dawn’s paintings, you get a sense of passion and a huge joy for life in the large brushstrokes and bright colours, but there is also a sense of control in the sophisticated choices and the obvious restraint evident in the strokes that form the shapes and, most importantly, the textures that are fast becoming one of her trademarks.

Yet upon meeting her, there is nary a hint of the fine painter that Dawn is becoming. Instead of the laughing, animated girl one might expect, Dawn is surprisingly reserved. Dressed in black leggings and a loose white tunic, she hovers in the background behind her mother, Swee Lin.

Under Swee Lin’s encouragement, Dawn begins the interview shyly, speaking in monosyllables before gradually opening up, though never quite making it to the pages and pages of chatter that an obviously mistaken writer expected while glancing through the prolific number of paintings by the young artist.

Yet there is something restful and charming in her hesitant smile and quicksilver laugh, gone in a flash; something touching about the way the unassuming and polite young girl shoots occasional fleeting glances at her mother who has retreated a short distance away to give her a measure of space and independence.

Read more about Dawn Kwan Ning Yu, art prodigy.