Great work from a cool mind
PHUKET: Painter Somrak Maneemai’s nickname is ‘Yen’, which means ‘cool’ in Thai.
Norachai Thavisin
Friday 4 May 2012, 12:00PM
His preference for cool, pastel colours is clearly evident in his oil and acrylic paintings, which are being shown at the VR Gallery of Mom Tri’s Villa Royale in Kata Noi until June 9.
It must feel good for an artist to be able to sit back and watch as his work of the past half decade is being appreciated by a lively crowd, as was the case at his exhibition opening last Saturday evening.
In Yen’s imaginative work, fantastical and whimsical little child figures bounce and cavort on beautifully-painted clouds and on the back of dreamy animals featuring large, clear eyes.
The artist normally works at his Red Gallery in the Phuket Art Village in Rawai, where he and four other artists are busy creating an active creative space out of their home-made studios.
It is the only such facility in Phuket, apart from the garden of Nakonnai Gallery, not far away in Soi Saiyuan 2.
Yen explains that his painting process consists of letting pools of thin paint wash over large canvases laying flat on the ground.
These paint pools dry up as landscapes of sky, clouds and desert that are then populated by a fantastic collection of little people and animals, popping up everywhere the eye looks.
This is Norachai’s last Gallery Focus, as he is moving to Chiang Mai to pursue his own art. We wish him all the best for the future. Next week, our new Arts Editor focuses his artistic eye on the island.
