A Snippet of Gay Life in Thailand
Sawadee Khrap
It’s harvest time – this painting, along with the rice planting and Lampang farm house image recently posted completes the rural farming collection. I think these hung together would look very nice on a single wall. these are all 16×20 inch and need to be finalized on canvas stock.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
I am having so much fun painting with Photoshop and the Art pen, particularly using Jack Davis’s painting techniques ,that I am slowly going through all my older favorite images and creating paintings. This is a 16×20 inch digital painting capturing rice field workers, in the fields surrounding Nakhon Sawan, that I passed while driving from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on Route 1 when I moved to Pattaya. 
It was a beautiful sunny day and they just stood out.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
Here is my painting of the enormous statue of Buddha (female looking) at Wat Phrathatsutonmongkonkiree Just outside of Phrae near Den Chai, before you come into Chiang Mai. Above is the link to my article posted 2/7/2008. I have a slideshow posted there and this photo was one of my favorites so I thought I would make this 16×20 inch painting of it.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
I told you I am in love with my new Art pen – With all the time on my hands lately I’ve completed several boy images, a portrait for my Landlord, Goody’s, and this one – my favorite scene from a photo taken in Lampang. All are done at 16×20 in , only the Landlord one has been painted on canvas and frame mounted. That cost him 2,100 Baht – 
very reasonable – I’ll show a photo of it later. This ones typical of rural living in Thailand and the beauty in the land, although I prefer being in the city – really nothing to do in the country but relax – and paint I suppose – HA HA I would miss the shopping centers. Houses are all raised for natural air-conditioning, and most of the land, if not forested, is set for farming. These are rice fields with banana groves. In the far middle right is a typical temple – you can see these dotted all over the landscape.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
I just went to show the owners, Chris and his lady, at my favorite local restaurant in bldg B the 16×20 in. painting I made for them and have my regular lunch. Gift too late !!!
Bad news all around – they have just been informed by the View Talay Management that he will have to remove his gas burners and replace them with electric, it’s against the Insurance code. Chris has been preparing my lunch, and dinner for that matter, ever since I developed my condition – special cooking, salt and sugar free, olive oil, no MSG – stir fried fresh daily vegetables and rice with grilled fish for dinner at a price extremely affordable. Sounds like he will have to move as he does not want to cook with electric – different flavor and not as good. He has a week or so but it sounds like unchangeable – I can only hope they find a place close by - within walking distance would be nice. Sorry you didn’t have a chance to taste his food – only comparable restaurant around is Cabbages and Condoms and that’s too far for walking.
I wish them all the best luck and I am really going to miss them. I’ll post their new location as soon as I know.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
WOW – the new pen is a must for anyone doing painting in Photoshop. No wonder I didn’t want to do painting – the regular pen just won’t cut it. And couple this Art pen with Jack Davis’s techniques and what a pleasure. Now I will go through older shots and turn them into paintings. Oh by the way, I expect a new model and a repeat within the next couple of weeks – hope it works out will.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
The background is from the wall of the old “Batman Building†in Chiang Mai – the model is anonymous. The painting is Digital Acrylic Painting using my new Art pen.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
Start off with a painting and then a shot of a scorpion I had in my 
files then a image I call “Time Travelâ€
Comments ????
Haven’t had any comments lately – anyone out there watching ?
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
Well it’s been raining all this week, so I thought I’d do a painting, 
took a couple of days but here is the result – saw this bird at Nong Nooch Gardens. I have been working on applying textures and have a few ideas for this painting – I’ll post them later.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
How do you think these would go for Bedroom Watercolor Posters ?
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
David, a friend of mine in Chiang Mai, had this great sculpture of a young boy casted in bronze by a French artist. (didn’t get his name, but the statue was almost 3 foot long, and heavy) in his back yard. 2 years ago it was stolen and I think I have the only photos of it left. This is a combination (painting) of several photos montaged for a more dramatic image. Hope you like it David.
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
This is a 17X25 inch digital painting of my favorite place just North of Fang on the way to Chiang Rai = Thaton. This is the Kok River, and it used to be the boundary of Thailand/Burma but now is considered Thailand, However many of the people on the western or left side still speak Burmese.
Too bad this small posted image doesn’t show the painting details like the full sized print – here it tends to look like a photo but the printed version is very hand-painted life like. This is a full size portion of the printed version.
It was produced using several filters and embossing in CS6 Photoshop – I cannot post the full size here but if someone is interested, I will see what I can do for them to get a copy
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
Here are a couple of diverse techniques. 
I love the photo of the little boy from the refugee camp, great shot of determination, climbing obstacles. More of a outline and cartoon effect but I think it adds a degree of importance to the shot. And the second is a painting effect utilizing greater brush stroke definition than the ones I did before.
Sunday I went to my first meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club and plan to go back next week – Sunday’s meeting had a nature photographer (ian Frame) showing his work – great presentation of macro work in the insect world. The club is also trying to re-spark their Photo Group and for it I volunteered to present some information on using Lightroom and Photoshop. We’ll see what happens and post later.
In addition there is also a Pattaya Expats Club meeting at the same time each Sunday – not sure who broke from who, I’ll get that info and let you know. I’ll try to attend this group in a couple of weeks.
A lot is going on, getting my schedule filled again – relaxing on the beach is nice but the chairs are starting to make my back ache , so I also need to get back to my stretching exercises. – always something,
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
Here is some of my recent paintings from my photos around Thailand. These experimentations use Photoshop or DAP (Dynamic Auto Painter) to achieve some special or painterly effects.
I tried several different techniques or combinations of programs to get the final results – subjects are from my photos around Chiang Mai – Painting #3 is a combination of several photos but the house on stilts comes from a recent trip to Sattahip here in Pattaya.
As always – COMMENTS are appreciated. Here are my original photos that I used:
Ciao
Sawadee Khrap
I think this is a better version of the runner (Colin Costello) I made for Pat in Ireland.
Although the other background did set him off – I believe this version showing the other racers add to the story being told in the image – comments ??
Ciao