Artists in Residence - Thailand

Debbie-Lee and I just returned from 12 days in wonderful Phuket, lying on the beach and everything else that goes with a vacation at a tropical resort.


We stayed at the Kata Thani on Kata Noi beach, the southern most beach on the western side of Phuket. Kata Noi is pretty quiet and doesn't have all the razamataz that Patong has, so we went into Patong on a couple of the rainy days to do some shopping, site seeing etc.


I was amazed at the number of art galleries and of the resident artists that sit there all day and paint for the tourists. From a skill standpoint they are very talented, and can create a very reasonable copy of any painting you give them a photo of... Want a Van Gogh in your loung room, a Dali in the study.. no problem, and all for about A$100.


Two things struck me...


1) How little these artists get paid for their work, yet they create quite good works of art


and


2) How unfullfilling it must be to spend every day copying someone elses art work, or at least someone elses style.


In the U.S. there are many "art galleries" that are about the size of a small Bunnings that focus on selling this type of affordable art. In the U.S they source from Mexico, where I presume they have the same sorts of art factories as I saw in Phuket. I know that you can also source these paintings from Indonesia and the Philippines, and I guess many other 3rd world countries.


In Australia, although a few of these "affordable art" stores exist, it is not a phenomenom that has taken hold.... but when it does, it will not bode well for the local art industry.. Think a struggling artist has it tough today... wait till they are competeing with $100 specials from Thailand.!!!!!