Painting at Baan Sillipin

You won’t believe it but I am going to Art Lessons here in Thailand.

I had read about an art exhibition of Impressionist Paintings and Watercolour in the local paper.

By the time I got around to visiting it the actual exhibition was over,but one morning a friend and I drove over to see what the small Art Gallery where it had been held looked like.

Six Kilometers over a pot holed road full of gravel on the back of a motor bike wasn’t really fun,but the lovely woods and hillside overlooking the sea made up for it.

We eventually came to Baan Sillipin,which actually means Painter’s House in Thai.

It was idyllic.

Set back from the road, a large old traditionally built Teak house greeted us.

It stood alone in the wood ,surrounded by tall tropical trees,their hanging branches and liana giving shade and a feeling of tranquility. Orchids of various hues had been planted in baskets hanging from the tree trunks and on the pond a couple of ducks swam contentedly.

We spent a while looking at the paintings in the gallery. Many very vivid with Buddhist motives,others paintings of western scenes looking somehow out of place here.

My friend being naturally more inquisitive than I am, wondered what was down the wooden staircase leading round the back of the building. We went down and found a large hut,of which the openings for windows and door were covered with mosquito mesh so we could see quite clearly there were people in there painting.

“Lets go in” he said

“No we can’t do that” I answered,knowing how painters don’t like to be disturbed.

In we went.

And that’s how I found Nang,my Art Teacher.A wonderful lady who is teaching me to paint in Watercolour Thai style.

It’s a different technique to the wet in wet method that I had got used to. It’s very bold for water colour,and in the beginning I was a bit sceptical,but it seems to work,especially here.

Last week I finished my first painting at Nang’s,and if I do say it myself I think it’s brilliant.

Dabbling in the Paint

It had to happen. I toddled along to an Art Vernissage which I do like attending for Arts sake if the subjects in the widest sense appeal to me. Not like all those people of course who are only there to wine and dine,although I am partial to a good, cold, dry white,and even more so to a glass of bubbly.Bollinger, if you want to know.

No, I am really interested in Art,and those of you that may have followed my revelations in that category will know that I like to dabble a bit myself. But truth is I am no talent,or I don’t think I am. People tell me what I paint is good but I am never satisfied with it. One of my colleagues at Art classes,say’s he feels just the same. The trouble is we are both perfectionists, the difference being, he turns out some brilliant work,but as he says he has been painting for years. That doesn’t help my self esteem either because he works at the next table.

So I got rather unsatisfied, and dissilusioned about it all and failed to enrol for the last set of Watercolour classes.-And I didn’t even excuse myself,or give a reason why to my teacher.

I havn’t picked up a brush or pencil in three monthes.
But I have been learning a lot from a fellow blogger: http:/ creatisphere.wordpress.com and realise now that even Artists go through this unsatisfaction.

So I went along to the Vernissage of a Watercolour Artist from Zürich, thinking I might learn something.
And who was the first person that I saw there on the other side of the wine.
My Art Teacher.

He had realised I was going through a “stage” and he hoped I would come back.

I start again next Tuesday.

Painting something called Art

Two Vermicelles and a big piece of Apple Strudel were staring at me as I opened the fridge door yesterday on my return from Art Classes.

The house was empty apart from Dominic von Tribo who was miaowing around my feet, and he doesn’t appreciate all the things that I do.

I hadn’t had time for a real lunch not that I was even making that an excuse, I just put the objects of desire on a plate and scoffed the lot.

You don’t have to be very perceptive to realise my painting hadn’t gone well at all.

It might be a sign of improvement because I am actually beginning to blame my teacher. He should have known by now that my great talents couldn’t be guided towards the abstract. Not at this stage anyway. (Am I beginning to sound like an artist?)

I am actually in his watercolour class because I admire the way he paints, wanting to be a sort of Raffaello to his Michaelangelo and what does he dare to do before I am quite that far.He changes his technique.

The Autumn leaves this week are no longer botanically recognisable, form is not important he wanted to see colour.

Cadmium red and yellow ochre, burnt sienna, crimson and sap green all mixed together with a splattering of prussian blue, and called art.
I asked if he found my painting just a tiny bit “restless”

“Not at all ” he said “from a distance.”