Being that the rain has returned, the dollar continues to drop and I still rarely see any 'and the arts' related subjects in this forum (not that I don't love photography) I'd like to present some recent paintings of mine to add a little diversity to things. The models for this group of works are some of my ladyboy friends. Complex, contradictory folks who help make bkk what it is, and I have tried to do them justice in these paintings. All of these are oil on canvas. Some as large or larger than life size. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks for that interesting contribution.

Yes, thanks for adding something other than photography to this section. I've always wondered why there aren't more painters/draughtsmen represented here. Although think your painting could benefit from being executed from something other than just photographs. Couldn't you get them to sit for you personally? Do some quick paint sketches first perhaps to get your eye in, and then you could use both photographs and the sketches to get a more three dimensional look to your painting? Not criticizing, merely offering practical advice.

feolindo,

great to hear from you again. fantastic stuff your doing- great subject matter and whoa.. what talent!! keep up the good work. do let us know when/if you have a show in BKK.

HH from down South

Yes, thanks for adding something other than photography to this section. I've always wondered why there aren't more painters/draughtsmen represented here. Although think your painting could benefit from being executed from something other than just photographs. Couldn't you get them to sit for you personally? Do some quick paint sketches first perhaps to get your eye in, and then you could use both photographs and the sketches to get a more three dimensional look to your painting? Not criticizing, merely offering practical advice.

thanks for the feedback.

Maybe a bit of personal background would be helpful: I've been painting for more than 30 years. Have a masters degree in fine art and studied with Eric Fischl in new york. My work is collected in North America, Europe and increasingly here in asia.

On to your points...

While some might say that slavish adherence to the 3D god is where its at, I would point to just about everyone from Corbet onward as proof otherwise.

There are a lot of great artists who work for years to perfect the 3D illusion in their work and that's fine. While I certainly had to learn how to render things in that manner during the course of my art education I consider it now to be but one tool in my graphic arsenal. I believe that a painting needs to be more than that. Every mark must be there for a reason. Every aspect of the piece has to be thought out from an art historical perspective, a narrative perspective, an emotional perspective and of course a purely personal aesthetic perspective. For me the inherent tension between the painted mark and the perspectival grid, between the painted surface and the paintings intention are but a couple of things that give a painting its unique power. Realism has little to do with 3D 'reality' and everything to do with the residue a thing/object/incident - as perceived by our senses and filtered through our emotions - leaves on our psyche.

On your other point they (the models) DO sit for me personally. I bring them in, design the lighting and setting, pose them and shoot hundreds of photos from which I'll choose one that I feel has painterly possibilities. I work from that. I do not project my photos onto the canvas and trace the contents and then do a paint-by-numbers thing the way some alleged 'realist' painters do. I bring the chosen pic up on my computer screen and use it as I would a live model - as a reference - with the added benefit that she doesn't move and the lighting never changes.

In the case of this series of works I find bkk's ladyboys to be some of the most interesting people I've ever encountered and am proud to call many of them my friends.

Thanks again for your interest.