Minneapolis-based artist, Kar-Keat Chong, is well-known for his local city scape imagery depicting iconic sites throughout the Twin Cities and beyond. With fountain pens, watercolors, and rice paper in hand, Kar-Keat takes to the streets, bridges and parks on his cherished “sketch walks” to land at the perfect spot—sometimes stumbling upon new places around town that he has never before visited. Kar-Keat works on location, expertly creating visual motifs of the recognizable landmarks that capture his attention. He becomes absorbed and laser-focused on recording the compositional details surrounding him: the lines and curves of buildings, the green shrubs and trees of the surrounding landscape, or the lively sidewalk scene just in front of him.

Kar-Keat grew up up in the bustling and vibrant city of Penang, Malaysia. His love of art blossomed at an early age, and by his teen years in Penang, he was honing his artistic skills by enjoying regular group plein air sketch outings and formal artistic training under esteemed watercolorists, Choon-Ghee Tan and Chuan-Jin Chai. Many subjects filled Kar-Keat’s sketch books: picturesque fishing villages, colorful Buddhist temples and busy Penang street scenes. A lifelong love of sketching grew out of these important early experiences.

In 1995, Kar-Keat came to the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies. After college, he worked in award-winning architecture firms before obtaining a Master’s degree in Architecture at the University of Minnesota. He reflects: “Painting and sketching took a backseat to my professional pursuits but I never lost my love for art. In 2017, I decided to make time for my childhood passion again by conducting plein air paintings on my own and joining regular sketch outings hosted by the Urban Sketchers-Twin Cities Chapter. Today, I run my own art and architecture studio. I am fortunate to gain insight and mentorship from world renowned watercolor artist Cheng-Khee Chee, who happens to be my father-in-law…My work has a realistic quality, with bold confident strokes in some scenes, as well as soft, more delicate lines in others. My drawing skills have come in handy with my current architecture profession, where I develop design ideas and construction details through sketches…Through my [fine art] sketches and paintings, I aim to create a mood that makes the viewer feel as though they were present at the very spot I sketched from…As one of the former administrators for Urban Sketchers Twin Cities, I have enjoyed organizing sketch outings and meeting sketchers who share the same passion in drawing and painting as me.”—Kar-Keat Chong