Exhibition in Chiang Mai

René Smith
Greatest Hits 2008 - 2552
September 2- 14, 2009
Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery Chiang Mai University

Photos from the show

Studio Update

The first painting from this series is finished! And two more in progress...

Off to Laos

Dave and I are off to Laos for a new visa for him and a short vacation. After we get back I'll catch up on posting pictures from our trip to the south of Thailand last month.
Above are some new paintings I've been working on at school - I have a big studio there, but only for the summer.

I am here

On Saturday Dave and I will head to a small island in Krabi in the South of Thailand with some of the other painting professors. We'll be gone for two weeks.

Mon Thaa Than Falls - Chiang Mai

This waterfall is less than 15 minutes from our house - a part of Doi Suthep National Park.


A great painting in the information center!

End of Semester - Student Work

I posted some images of student work from the end of semester reviews on my flickr site. My students' BFA show "Ending to Beginning" opens on Friday March 6 at 6pm at the Chiang Mai University Art Museum. It runs through March 30.

Lectures and Workshop in Bangkok

Last week Dave and I went to do a workshop called "Everything Has Its Cartography, Its Geography, Its Diagram" at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkabang in Bangkok. I gave a talk about my work, and we did the workshop with grad and post-grad students.


Dave presents some contemporary artists whose work relates to mapping. In this slide is an image from Mark Dion's project at Bartram's Gardens in West Philadelphia. For more about Dion's project see Fallon and Rosof's Artblog post.

The following day the students did their own mapping projects. They chose to "map" the area in front of the library.

Pictured above is Natnaran Bualoy, who interviewed a lady who had lived in the area for a long time about what the space was like before the library was built.


Pisitakun "Nat" Kuntalang made a series of small drawings recording what was in the sky every few seconds.


A giraffe's journey - Kasira Siriwattanakul, Piangpatu Thantavivattananont, and Supawadee documented this little giraffe taking the same path that we followed from the classroom to the site.


Students laying out string to map the word "Ladkabang" according to a design created by a computer program they wrote. This project was made by Manatsawee Torsuwan, Tanasan Kanakasem, and Kritsada Phakawatsuntorn.


My artist talk for the undergrads. The students were great and asked lots of interesting questions - for more than an hour!

Special thanks to Komson Nookiew for inviting us, arranging everything, and translating too.

More photos from the workshop here.

More photos of student work here.

Lamphun, Thailand

Watercolor and Gouache on Paper. 11 x 14 inches.

analogmemory by Nukarb and Sosharp at Pongnoi Artspace

Earlier this month Dave and I went to the opening of analogmemory at Pongnoi Artspace. Installed in the gallery was a little living room with tv, astroturf, many small photo albums to browse, and torn photographs on the walls.

More photos, including the accompanying wall text here.

Realistic Paint - Some Highlights

Some work from the end of the semester from my Painting II Students.
More here.

Painting Classes in Chiang Mai

I will be returning to Chiang Mai in July 2010, and I may be offering art classes there (in English) in the future. Please contact me if you are interested at ReneMSmith at gmail.com

(The above image is from a natural drawing made by Drawing IV students from Chiang Mai University on a trip I took with them last year)

Sofian Audry at Compeung

A visitor checking out the work.

There is a small residency program about 1/2 hour outside of Chiang Mai in Doi Saket. The Canadian artist Sofian Audrey recently showed the new media project that he created there over the last few months.
Check out the video of his project here:
Absences Video
And his website here:
http://www.sofianaudry.com/en/works/absences

My photos of his project and Compeung on flickr here.

Thailand's Least Visited National Park

Watercolor and gouache on paper.
11 x 14 inches.

My Friends - How I Have Missed You

Dave brought me some Gamblin Radiant White from the U.S.A.

Painting at the Temple

We take the realistic painting students to paint at a temple just outside the city. I team teach this class with 3 other teachers, and we have 50 students. It is a required class for second year students.


Composing the painting.


Don't forget your rubber arm.


A motorbike makes a good easel.

This class reminded me of the good old days of Rome Sketchbook, an onsite drawing class that I took as an undergraduate student with Marina Adams, and then later taught as a grad student for two semesters.

Visit to Doi Khun Tan National Park

Last weekend we had a camping trip to Doi Khun Tan National Park in Lamphun - about 1 1/2 hours from Chiang Mai. According to Lonely Planet, this park is Thailand's least visited, but it was really nice. We went with the senior painting students and the other faculty, and stayed in sweet seventies style park bungalows.


There were songs.


Informative maps.


Late night Pork BBQ.


Back of the School Van Portraiture (pictured is a portrait of Dave).


And General Fun Times.

More pictures here

Lecture on My Work

Wednesday January 21, 2009 6pm

Chiang Mai University Faculty of Fine Arts

I'll be giving a talk about my work - with Thai translation.

Christmas with The Thai Beatles Specialist

It was just an accident that we ended up at a bar with the Beatles specialist. He played every hit, with a perfect soft British accent and a level of feeling and enthusiasm that was quite impressive.
In this photo you can see the back of Om and Kosit's heads and the man doing his thing at the Drunken Flower.

New Years in Meh Hong Son

For New Years I went to Meh Hong Son. I stayed in the beautiful and non-touristy town of Meh Sariang and had quiet times with drawings and bbq'd meats and evenings by the fire. We also went out one day to the river that separates Thailand and Burma and went out on a boat.



But not this boat - I took this picture from the larger boat that we were on.

More photos here.