Painting a night to remember
Suthirak Chantragun started his artistic career much like many other Phuket-born artists, creating reproduction art. But as time passed and he gained experience, Suthirak began to develop his very own unique style.
Jody Houton
Monday 25 June 2012, 09:15AM
As well as garnering a significant amount of interest in Thailand, Suthirak has also had his work displayed oversees and many of his huge, sprawling, dynamic works can be found in villas, private residences, top restaurants and hotels around the world and, of course, in his native Phuket.
Suthirak’s brother Jay, in addition to being responsible for the development of the trendy BYD Lofts hotel in Patong, he is also in charge of the marketing of his artistic brother’s work.
He says with a smile, “I help him because artists don’t know how to do business.”
It is also rather convenient, as BYD Loft contains many of Suthirak’s original pieces, over 100 of them, and many, regardless of whether in the bedroom or living room, command attention and demand to be the featured focus of a room.
“He used to do much more serious portraits and some abstracts, but when it came to the design of the buildings, and for him to provide the artwork for the hotel rooms, he had to adapt his style,” Jay explains.
Suthirak’s work is characterised by heavily applied layers of paint and bold vibrant colours. They are more often than not executed on huge canvases and adorn, dominate and add an exciting dynamic to every wall that they hang on.
Jay says that there have been exceptions: “Although they are normally rather large, he also makes many which are custom-made. He often tailors the size to fit the width of sofas or beds, for example.”
Although the majority of the work Suthirak creates now would be considered abstract, he takes inspiration from real-life events as well as emotional stimuli.
“Each colour represents his feeling and what he’s going through at that time... Sometimes he’s inspired by events like the Singapore Grand Prix or something more abstract such as love.”
Jay adds that after the tsunami much of Suthirak’s work used dark and passionate colours such as reds and blacks, but a few years on his work became much happier, joyful and full of life and these are the ones that can be seen adorning the walls of the BYD Lofts today.
