Isara Thaothong

Walking around Phuket Town I wandered into an art studio/gallery because of some paintings that I really liked.  The gallery turned out to belong to Isara Thaothong or It for short.  When Hadley was out visiting we drew together almost every night with pens, all black and white and consisting of very fine lines crossing, swirling, and converging into patterns.  Drawing in this very time consuming and meticulous style is very calming to me, you don't think about what you are going to draw, you just draw it.

While It's style is more cartoony/street arty and far more precise and thought out, I was very attracted to his pieces.  He told me that he used different sized markers on canvas and that they were actually just for fun, something to do while the paint was drying on his more traditional paintings (he studied art in Bangkok).  He has only been in Phuket two months and is renting the entire building, the second floor of which he is planning to turn into a gallery space for him and other artists in the area... although two buck chuck isn't available over here so I don't know what he's going to do on the wine front.

It and some of his drawings.

This one really requires a closer look.  An absolutely insane amount of detail.

I stopped by his place on my way to the bus station to say bye and hangout for a little bit.  Notice the mountain of pork satay on the bench with peanut sauce for dipping and cucumber salad.  It was 60 baht ($2.00) for about 20 satays... delish.