Flora / Fauna – Concepting and Workshops

This past week in Mae Sot has been productive. I’ve given individual artist training, conducted Flora / Fauna drawing workshops, and am currently engaged in the initial concepting stage for the print project!

Student K.K. drawing a wild buffalo (banteng) during a Flora / Fauna workshop.

So far, the most difficult task is in choosing which plants and animals to represent. I’ve designed a rubric to help me whittle down the candidates. My hope is to create a dynamic group of images with a well rounded cast of creatures, and it definitely helps to have some self-imposed guidelines. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and will share some of my initial process drawings once I feel that the concepts are strong enough.

Drawing from a cast concrete sculpture helps students understand how light falls onto the different planes of the human head– in the drawing room at the Puzzlebox Art Studio.

This week I’ll be conducting three Flora / Fauna drawing workshops. Today, I gave one such workshop to a group of young adults who are all themselves art teachers for a local Mae Sot based project called Kick-Start Art. It was the best workshop so far! They were enthusiastic and fun, and all of their work is really strong. I’ll share more of those images next week.

Here are some more day to day shots from my life in Mae Sot. Thank you all for your support!

Student John Khai and his drawing of the Great Indian Hornbill for a Flora / Fauna workshop. This animal is particularly important to John as he is from Chin State in Burma, where the Hornbill is used as a symbol on their flag.

Sunset in Mae Sot, Thailand.

Some small, delicate local flowers.

Midnight self portrait.

Full moon over Mae Sot.