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Marilyn Band – Black and White at Villa Royale Gallery
Friday 3 January 2020, 08:00AM
With a successful show of new paintings on display at Mom Tri’s Gallery of Modern Art and Cuisine, the artist Marilyn Band has decided to present another, quite different exhibition of her more familiar, more classical work of original drawings, prints and limited editions at the Villa Royale Gallery at Kata Beach opening 3 January until 10 February 2020. She’s named the new exhibit, Black and White, to describe this substantial body of work. “I’ve had a long, happy career drawing the beautiful villages and people around the Indian Ocean while I have been sailing with my husband, Nick. We’ve explored the region from Zanzibar to the outer islands of Indonesia and I’ve drawn the cultures from many regions. Now I want to share these new and original images.” She also believes this art will show a vanishing world when the skies and the ocean were cleaner and people could more easily support themselves when living in remote villages. When Nick and Marilyn sailed to Phuket in 1980, the island was heavily populated with water buffaloes and covered with rice fields. There was no international tourism. The beaches were empty and it was difficult to make from one place to another. There was no road connecting Karon and Patong beaches and it was rumored that dangerous animals still inhabited the hills between Phuket Town and the western beaches. Marilyn’s early work from this period will be available for purchase. “I think it’s important for Phuket residents to understand that we need to protect the environment including the quality of air and water that has seriously been threatened by overdevelopment,” she says. “I hope my art from an earlier time will remind people of what if being lost.” In addition to a collection of black and white graphic images of Thai religious and cultural sites, Marilyn will offer a variety of colorful work from different periods of her career. Marilyn comes from four generations of English stained glass artists whose commissions even included work on Exeter Cathedral. They were kept busy repairing damage to churches and building damaged during World War II. As a child, she worked with her father at drawing and fabricating colored glass for their creations. She later studied graphic design at High Wycombe Technical College in Buckinghamshire, England and started her career as a graphic artist in a variety of advertising agencies in London. But on holiday to the Seychelles, the young artist met her future husband Nick who had sailed his yacht from Africa to the Seychelles. Together they have explored the wide Indian Ocean for 40 years where Marilyn has taken inspiration for her art. They built their studio, made from locally sourced materials, in Rawai in 1980 and Marilyn has been painting and drawing and building collage ever since. She will be in residence at the Villa Royale Gallery most days from lunchtime til 7pm. For more information, contact Villa Royale at 076 333 568 or info@villaroyalephuket.com