With the dawn comes hope

THAIS AROUND the country and overseas unite every December 5 to celebrate and pay homage to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the occasion of his birthday. 

As His Majesty marks his 88th birthday today, eight of Thailand’s best-known artists are honouring the King as a world-renowned musician, composer, arranger, and performer with an exhibition of newly created paintings inspired by the King’s much-loved composition “Klai Roong” (“Near Dawn”).

Prateep Kochabua, Muangthai Busamaro, Thavorn Ko-udomvit, Rearngsak Boonyavanishkul, Ekachai Luadsoongnern, Nitikorn Kraivixien, Thongchai Srisukprasert and Panya Vijinthanasarn have each created a painting based on their interpretation of one of the eight verses of the royal repertoire. Composed in 1946, "Near Dawn" was penned in Thai by Professor Dr Prasert Na Nagara with the contribution of HRH Prince Chakrabandh Pansiri.

 

“Dai yin sieng waew dang paew ma tae klai klai

Chum chuen ruthai wan dai ja pan”

“Because it is the King’s song, I have moved away from my surrealist style that focuses on nudity and psychoanalysis. The painting is about the joy of life and reflects how a newborn is related to this song of hope. The song is about waking up in the morning to the first ray of hope. The artwork doesn’t depict any humans but portrays the human anatomy in wood. The egg represents birth and hearing the song of hope while the wooden figure playing a saxophone on the stairs tells everybody that this is a portrayal of the highest culture.” – Prateep Kochabua

 

“Fang sieng banleng kap pleng prasan 

Jak thip vimarn prathan klom jai”

“My painting is realistic but with a dreamy slant and depicts a woman who is sleeping and dreaming. The word ‘vimarn’ brings to my mind Aisawan Thipphaya-At Pavilion at Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, Ayutthaya, which is surrounded by water and is similar to floating in heaven. I imagine the sound of music coming out of the pavilion. I haven’t painted any musicians and melodies but rather used colours spouting from the pavilion like floating in a dream. I want ‘vimarn’ to be the keyword of the painting. The woman is sleeping to the sound of music, which makes her happy. A sleeping cat and a sleeping bird are waiting for a sun to rise in the sky. The halo coming out from the centre of the ‘vimarn’ beams the morning light and most importantly the sound of music.” – Muangthai Busamaro

 

“Klai yam muea saeng thong song

Chan khoi mong jong fah ruang ramrai”

“I usually concentrate on landscapes with a dim atmosphere and philosophic symbols. For my painting, I have been inspired by the phrase ‘yam muea saeng thong song’. Every time I’m on plane, I see the sunshine above the clouds. When I wake up in the morning at Khao Yai, I feel the fresh air. I’ve used a beam of dawn light hitting the edge of the clouds. I didn’t listen to the song while I was painting but instead to the sound of my imagination. Light is vital to every living thing. Look at the tree, the leaves will grow when they have light. The flower represents beauty, reflecting the hope of living things. The mountain is typical of what we can see upcountry. But it isn’t just a mountain; a cave, grass and trees overlap the surface.” – Thavorn Ko-udomvit

 

“Lom bok boi ma nao jai

Ror cha pieng rai tawan ja ma”

“The whole song is like we are waiting for hope. We all need hope in our lives. Being hopeful makes life more colourful and interesting. The verse gives me a feeling of loneliness while waiting for hope to come. That made me think of sky and the rising sun. A beam of sunlight in the morning is like starting a new life. I used empty land, the sky and objects and half of an image of Buddha’s head for a landscape. There are a lot of ‘dhevada’ pavilions spread over the sky as well as the Giant Swing and three pagodas. I would like people to feel happy when they see the details of the painting. Hope is the message I want to present. Hope is the heart of life, the core of Buddhism.” – Rearngsak Boonyavanishkul

 

“Plerd plern ruthai fang kai prasan sieng kan

Dok maliwan uan klin rakhon montha”

“I’m an expert at mixing landscape with Impressionism, like jazz music. The watercourse maze in the painting is based on a real destination but with the addition of huts and hens. I would like everybody to hear the sound of hens in the near and far distances. The painting has two dimensions – sight and imagination. It is like looking from a cliff, a hill or a house that’s inspired by the Akha people. This painting is about the lives of upcountry folk, which goes along with the verse and stems from my childhood. When I was a kid I woke early and led buffaloes to the field to feed on grass and water before going to school. It is like the beginning of a life. ‘Montha’ is a species of flower that gives off its fragrance in the late morning.” – Ekachai Luadsoongnern

 

“Oh nai yam nee plern nak na saeng thong nuan phong napha

Saen plern ura samrarn”

“I have a picture of ‘Saeng thong nuan phong napha’ in my head. My painting is about peacefulness and religion and features an outstanding tree beside the temple. ‘Saeng thong’ isn’t only the beginning of the twilight but also the prosperity of the country. I used pointillism in this work. Usually, I focus on portraits but this is my first attempt at a landscape. This painting looks like a photograph and might give the viewer the impression that I painted from a photo. But this temple isn’t a real place though it does perhaps bring to mind a temple in Ayutthaya or in Sukhothai. This painting is like an experiment. It features a pagoda, a Buddha image and a tree all taken from different sources.” – Nitikorn Kraivixien

 

“Moo muan wihok bin phok ma tae rang non

Fao choei chid chon lim chom bua ban”

“I listened to the entire song. To my mind, the melody is like rhythm of the heart of a man who has just woken up to a new day and looks fresh. The blue colour represents that morning freshness. After singing the verse, I could see in my mind a flock of birds flying out from their nests and looking for flowers as a food source. I also thought of an artwork by Khrua In-Khong, a painter in the reign of King Rama IV, which depicted a giant lotus in the middle of a large pond. The lotus is symbolic in Buddhism. So I painted a beautiful lotus opening its petals to welcome the light. The birds are white, representing foreigners. I sprinkled drops of water on the painting to give it a texture resembling vapour, rain, fog and dew.” – Thongchai Srisukprasert

 

“Yin sieng banleng dang pleng khub khan

Sod khlong kangwan sab san jab jai”

“Eight artists working together on the same song is a completely new phenomenon but an interesting one. I have heard this song since I was a child. Every time I listen to it, it makes me nostalgic for a winter morning in my home in Prachuab Khiri Khan’s Sam Roi Yot district. At first, it was hard for me to interpret this very abstract last verse so I listened to the song the whole way through and kept rewinding it. That brought to mind a vision of going from morning to night and on again to morning. My painting is like a conclusion to the song. After looking at my painting, viewers can go to look at Pratheep’s as the starting point. In fact, all the verses of the song can be found in my painting – the joy we feel when we see the face of a Buddha image, for example. I’ve separated time into two circles of morning and night, with the sun and moon overlapping each other. The morning circle is about flowers in full bloom while the night focuses on nature like a river, wind, soil and living things hidden in the dark. My style is Thai neo-traditional art.” – Panya Vijinthanasarn

 

THE DAWN IN COLOUR

 

- All eight works will be on show in the exhibition, “Drawn to the Near Dawn”, at Ardel Gallery of Modern Art on Boromrachachonnanee Road from December 15 to 19. 

- On December 15 at 6.30pm, saxophonist Piti Kayoonpan will perform some cool jazz.

- Ardel Gallery is opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 10.30am to 7pm and on Sunday from to 5.30pm. 

- For more information, call (02) 422 2092 or visit to www.ArdelGallery.com and ARDEL Gallery of Modern Art at Facebook.