Visual artist Charmaine Chen specialises in painting signs by hand – a time-honoured craft that requires patience, precision and practice
For Singapore-based signwriter Charmaine Chen, every project must begin with a clear space and a clear mind – a blank canvas, so to speak.
The 38-year-old takes great care in tidying her studio before embarking on a new commission, meticulously oiling her brushes and packing away half-finished tubes of paint. It’s a seemingly mundane task, but for Chen, it’s an all-important ritual – one that affords her a moment of mental clarity and calm amid her busy schedule.
As she explains, traditional signwriting is an exacting art, in which every line and letter is painted by hand. “Working in my studio for days on end can get very intense,” Chen says.
For her recent exhibition, titled Old is Gold (through 13 March 2026 at the Bank of Singapore), she toiled in her studio for 72 hours, spending a good amount of time watching paint dry – literally.
“Letting it cure, and knowing the perfect window to hit the next technique [in the process], involves a lot of watching and waiting,” she says.
Fortunately, Chen – who learned the craft 12 years ago in Sydney – also spends plenty of time outside her studio’s four walls.
Many of her pieces are site-specific, adorning the facades – and sometimes interiors – of establishments across Singapore: from the storefront of Lad & Dad gastropub in Tanjong Pagar to the lobby and car park of Novena Church.
These commissions, however, are no less demanding than her studio-based projects. At Meiko Tailor in Boat Quay, she stood for hours in the sweltering heat, painstakingly hand-painting the shop’s logo in enamel and then gilding it with gold leaf for added effect.
She also recently completed some signage for sandwich shop Don’t Runaway in Joo Chiat, wielding her paintbrush while perched on a ladder on a busy pavement.
While Chen’s projects vary in complexity, style and scale, the one thing they have in common is a deep sense of place and time. She pays homage to lettering, type, pictorials and textures from days of yore, drawing inspiration from archival sources and historical objects.
Some of her pieces are modelled on vintage signs from the early 20th century, while others are informed by their locality’s history or influenced by design movements such as Art Deco. And of course, each sign reflects the client’s distinctive brand positioning – Lad & Dad’s storefront, for example, is inspired by the classic British chippy.
While hand-painted signs were a common sight in Singapore up until the 1980s, they are something of a rarity today, with most shops preferring cheaper factory-made vinyl options. But as one of the last few traditional
sign writers in the city, Chen is determined to change that – one brush stroke at a time.
Speaking about Old is Gold, she notes, “I hope that my work will remind audiences about the past. It’s essential that we hang on to tradition and preserve what we still have.”
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