Looking to buy original watercolors and drawings/sketches

[highdesert]

We are dealers in original artwork in the USA. We are looking to purchase original watercolors and drawings/sketches on paper no larger than 40 by 50 cms.

Does anyone have any ideas where we should start hunting?
We will be in Chiang Mai from January 8th - February 8th.

Please email with images of artwork if you have any to sell.

[CMHomeboy78]

Greetings, and welcome to the forum.

Chiang Mai at one time was a place that attracted many artists; several of them quite well-known. The Swiss painter Theo Meier and the German Gerd Barkowski were long-term residents. Paul Bowles, the American writer lived here for a time as well.

I came in 1978 as a young artist on my travels. It was the best place I had ever been to by a factor of ten. After a few years of living here, painting and pursuing my pleasures, I married a girl from an old Chiang Mai family and settled down - more or less.

The boom-years of the mid-'80s changed the city out of recognition and ended an era that is fondly remembered by those who were here at the time.

Chiang Mai still has many attractions, but the raffish types who used to make up the majority of foreigners are now replaced by a more conventional and law-abiding class of people, whose dollars and pounds and euros buy them a better lifestyle than they could afford in their home countries.

That said, you might very well find artists who are living and working here, doing work that would perhaps interest you.

Modernization has had much less impact on the countryside, and the Kohn Muang - Northern Thai people - still have the charm, lovely manners, and highly refined folk-arts that have always impressed visitors.

Rural areas would likely attract foreign artists more than the westernized cities; but living there would be difficult for a number of reasons. Language primarily, if they were newcomers.

Better to concentrate on Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai also, if you have time to get up there.

HQ PaperMaker is a Chiang Mai source for handmade artpaper; mulberry, bamboo, etc. They also promote the work of local artists, Thai and foreign. You might be able to make some contacts through them at hqartgallery.com and hqpapermaker.com.

On a personal note, my own work is mostly - but not exclusively - Thai-related. Landscapes, the traditional life and Buddhist culture of Northern Thailand. Also mandalas and other things. Always oil on linen canvas mounted on plywood; but I don't think that is what you are looking for. Anyway...

Best of luck in Chiang Mai.

[highdesert]

Thanks CM Homeboy78, We will definitely check out HQ PaperMaker.

Your work sounds lovely, but we are looking for pieces on paper.

Wishing you all the best.

[mimithewoof]

These is a flourishing Art department at Chiang Mai University, and the campus has its own art gallery which showcases its students' work on a regular basis.

Perhaps an email to them at http://www.cmu.ac.th/index_eng.php might get some results, but don't expect a fast reply - Thailand doesn't work like that!

The Lanna people here in the north have a real creative talent, and there are a number of art galleries here, as well as a small artists' community along the sois (small streets) set opposite the university gates and leading to Wat U Mong at the foot of the mountain.

Good luck, and enjoy your visit!

[CMHomeboy78]

I don't know how familiar you are with Northern Thailand [Lanna Thai] in general, and Chiang Mai in particular. So I may be telling you things you already know.

Your primary interest seems to be artwork done on paper. The production of handmade paper from mulberry bark is a Chiang Mai tradition that goes back many hundreds of years. In all probability it was brought with the various Tai peoples who migrated southwards from China and began to establish small states in upper Burma, Laos, and Lanna Thai in the early 12th century.

Mulberry paper is called "gra-daht saa" in Thai, and it is produced in many places; notably the village of Bo Sahng, east of Chiang Mai.

It is one of a wide variety of crafts that is practiced by these instinctively artistic people.

Ban Tawai, south of the city, is another place where you can get a good idea of traditional Lanna Thai arts and craftwork.

Again... good luck - chok dee - and I hope all goes well on your trip.

[highdesert]

Thanks for all the info and suggestions.

[namatjira]

worawuth srakaeo has a watercolor studio on huay kaew road, he could well be what you are looking for, he is there most days working away, www.watercolourdelanna.com........he produces vibrant vivid paintings of the lanna kingdom, he is highly skilled and has developed an original style....watercolour is his speciality.....speaks good english. Driving down huay kaew rd towards du suthep he is in a small strip of shops and right next to doi chaeng coffee shop, as you turn onto huay kaew road from the moat drive past kad suan kaew shops and the orchid hotel and take the first possible left, turn into the soi and you will see his studio, he always has some stock there......the left hand turn is straight after the orchid hotel.....well worth a look