During the lockdown, while living alone, I turned to painting as a way to keep myself company. I found myself captivated by small pleasures, such as the way ink dances in water. A precious gift from my mother, a white towel adorned with red lettering reading "wish you good morning," had been carefully kept and unused until my period of complete isolation. It was then that I realised how much I missed my home country. As someone of Straits Chinese descent, born and raised in Malaysia but now residing in London, my background includes twelve years of formal training in Chinese calligraphy and classical ink-wash painting. In classical Chinese paintings, illustrations are often accompanied with words. And nature is a traditional source of inspiration and wisdom. Rarely in the history of classical Chinese art, artists looked at their own reflections and thought they were suitable subjects for paintings. In contrast, there is a rich history of self-portraiture in the West dating back to the 15th century. In my practice, I explore this cultural difference in my self-portraits. Note in my submitted painting I hold my brush slightly differently: like how it would be held for Chinese calligraphy.