For Dawn, painting is a form of pleasure and a fulfilment of a creative urge, “When I relax, I just paint.” When asked about what makes her feel like painting, she shrugs, “I don’t know. When I feel like painting, it’s very nice; when I don’t feel like painting, it’s very ugly. I don’t know what makes me feel like drawing or painting – I just need to draw. When I see something I like, my first feeling is to draw it.”

And in truth, there’s no pressure on her from her parents. Swee Lin cheerfully informs us that Dawn may be a prolific painter but she really only has one full-on painting session a week at Studio Haroobee. Whatever else Dawn does outside of that session is whatever Dawn feels like painting, and if she doesn’t, then she does something else. Dawn calls the weekly sessions “very fun!” and adds that she’s very comfortable with her teacher, June.

Any pressure that Dawn feels appears to come from within. The young girl admits, “Sometimes I come out of the studio crying because I cannot get the effect I want. This happened with Hot Chocolate.” Hot Chocolate is a painting Dawn did a while ago of her favourite beverage – she always buys a cup of hot chocolate after her weekly painting sessions in Studio Haroobee where she studies under the founder. She had failed to achieve a swirly effect in the painting. “But my mum encouraged me and next week I painted it. I told mum that we can sell any painting except this one. It’s hanging at home, near the staircase.”

But this doesn’t diminish Dawn’s joy in painting or her carefree approach. She notes, wisely, “I think a lot of people are scared to draw because they’re afraid their painting will turn out ugly. I try to experiment and if it goes wrong, I’ll just redo it. If I see a painting and I like the effect, I will try to remember and experiment to see how the artist does it… One time I did this really ugly painting and I was not satisfied at all and I just did it again. I covered it with another painting.”

Asked about her favourite way to paint, Dawn muses for a while before replying, “I like to use the palette knife. You can achieve a lot of texture. I find texture in a painting interesting – a lot of people paint flat but I don’t want to be like a lot of people.”