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The lotus flower outside my gallery bloomed recently. This is the lotus plant that my mother gave me, it has been with me for many years. Ever since my friendship with Chua Ek Kay I had wanted a lotus plant. Ek Kay frequently spoke about the lotus, how it emerges from the water as buds and comes to full bloom before it drops its petal and leaves a seed pod for regrowth. When the colour of the leaves change from green to brown, Ek Kay referred to this as the "colour of lotus leaves”. Lotus leaves are the greatest challenge to paint because of its ever changing shapes and the need for its stems to be well contrasted. I dug up one of Ek Kay’s works of the Lotus Pond done 2 years before he passe