Thailand - Art by Garn
Shopping In Thailand
On my first trip to Thailand in 1987 I remember wanting to buy a fake Rolex watch and some tailor made clothes. The watch I bought in Pattaya broke after a couple of months and the shirts that I had made ended up as cleaning rags very quickly. They were too small, the collars were flimsy, and what looked like pure white under fluorescent lights was actually a pale lilac colour. On that trip I didn't buy anything worth keeping.
There is a lot of rubbish for sale in Thailand, yet the tourists keep buying it. Many, like me on my first trip, come with preconceived ideas about what they should buy in Thailand. For example, tourist resorts are full of Indian tailor shops for tourists determined to buy custom made clothing, and shops in backpacker areas stock up with baggy fisherman pants for Lonely Planet readers.
Cheap clothes can look like a bargain, but my wife has bought cheap clothes for our daughter that fell apart during the first wash before she'd had a chance to wear them. Many quality products are imported and the tax that is added makes them far more expensive than in their country of origin.
So, what is worth buying in Thailand?
Thai Artists
My wife is an art teacher. She painted some really cute animal cartoons, which I had framed for our daughter's bedroom. When I suggested that she try to sell some, her response was that on one in Thailand would be interested.
Maybe this is because most Thais live just above the poverty line and have no disposable income to spend on artwork and decorating their homes? She can't sell her work and her salary was a pittance when she worked at the school where we met.
I find this quite sad, but the situation offers some great opportunities for foreigners who appreciate and want to display works of art in their houses.
In the UK I had an artist friend who studied at The Slade. His work was expensive even in the UK, and hugely expensive compared to prices in Thailand.
Hand painted works of art, to you own or the artist's design, are really worth buying in Thailand.
Garn
Garn is a friend of my wife's. They studied together at university when they were studying for their Bachelor's degrees in art. She is a very capable artist and the purpose of creating this page was to showcase her work and hopefully give it a wider audience.
We have a couple of her paintings in our house and will be getting more. She can turn photographs into paintings and can also paint caricatures. I asked her to do some caricatures of my brothers for Christmas presents.
The work she chooses to do for herself is modern, but there is a very distinctive Thai/Buddhist/Asian theme. The Buddha, Buddhist monks, and other images of Eastern religion and spiritualism often feature in her work.
Some works consist of a single frame, whereas others are triptychs and tetraptychs. The painting that hangs above the staircase in my house is one of Garn's. It is a triptych and the medium is acrylic on canvas. The tree and sun that are featured were created using gold leaf, and the moon with silver leaf.
The gold leaf is expensive to buy and not all artists can use it, but she seems to have mastered the technique very well. This painting is quite striking and changes in appearance throughout the day as the light changes.
She can work in any medium on any surface and will create work exactly to customer specifications.
Garn was born in Hat Yai, in Songkhla province, but moved to Phuket where there are lots of foreign tourists with disposable income, and therefore more opportunities to sell her paintings.
She used to work in a shop in one of the tourist areas, but now she works at home. She still gets work through shops, but of course they add on their own commission. If you buy directly from her there is no commission.
Examples of Garn's work
Unfortunately, these photos of her work taken with a phone camera don't do justice to the actual paintings. They look far better in the flesh.
If you click on one of the thumbnail images a larger image will appear in a pop-up window, provided that you haven't disabled Javascript in your browser.
Artwork for sale
Garn is always happy to find customers who wish to buy her work. Her own work is available for sale, or you can commission her to produce a painting exactly to your own specifications.
Prices vary depending on size, materials used, and time taken, etc, but all work is priced very competitively. Customers normally collect paintings themselves in Phuket, but she will also arrange to have work sent in the post. She has done this within Thailand and says she is happy to do it to overseas addresses.
Size
Obviously, work that has already been painted cannot be changed in size. Most paintings shown on this page are quite large - around 100cm x 100cm. On the other hand, paintings commissioned by customers can be ordered with a size specified.
Postage and delivery
The paintings are mounted with the canvas stretched on basic wooden frames. Within Thailand, it isn't too expensive to send them by post still mounted on their frames.
However, sending them overseas like this will probably be quite expensive and there is more chance of damage occurring. It is therefore anticipated that any paintings sent overseas will be rolled up and put inside cardboard tubes for protection.
It will then be the customer's responsibility to mount the paintings on frames and add external picture frames as required.
Postage will be charged separately and quotes can be given.
Prices
Here are some approximate prices. These are prices for original pieces of art. Some pieces may be similar to others, but no two will be exactly the same.
Use the XE Currency Converter to see how much these prices are in your own currency.
If you are interested, send me an e-mail (phil@phil.uk.net) and I will ask my wife to contact Garn for a quote.