THAI ARTIST PIONEERS REALISM
By Janine Yasovant
[WC News Service]
It is so interesting to talk about a Thai artist, Sa-ad Tanomwong, whose work I've followed for several years. He is an independent artist that I always admired and who I have wanted to write about -- his life and work. In December 2016, he agreed to be interviewed show me some of his works.
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The artist |
Sa-ad Tanomwong was born in Klaeng District, Rayong Province, Thailand. He graduated from Poh Chang academy of art. He began his artistic career as movie poster painter, taught art subjects at Santirad school and then worked for the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok.
After he resigned from the last job, in 1971, he eventually got a job at a USIS organization as an art illustrator and this was the beginning of his full-time artist life. When he was working for the USIS Thailand with another eight artists, he had an idea to create art that looked exciting and independent because he had inspiration from a foreign artist who drew powerful realistic paintings of wild horses.
At that time Sa-ad also created his first collection of nine expressionist paintings of wild horses and he called the theme “Wild and free.” This collection was exhibited together with paintings from other artists at the AUA Center in Bangkok to strengthen relationship between the USA and Thailand.
At the end of the exhibition, all of his paintings were not sold, while works of other artists were sold out. A day later a Bangkok-based art magazine review appeared that praised and recommended this collection. So, that in the end, the all the paintings were bought.
Thereafter, he worked on various other sets of painting with different themes. Apart from collections of horse paintings, the “Forest in Thailand” collection was greatly sought after by art collectors. Furthermore, for many years Sa-ad has been creating collections of sacred lotus paintings. He is praised by many as being a pioneer artist for his beautiful and realistic renderings of the Thai lotus.
To Buddhists, lotus is the flower that they use as offering to pay respect to Buddha images and their monks. The lotus is also used in the religious ceremonies.
Depending on size, his paintings start from 80,000 Thai Baht.