Page 43 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE Vol 3
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them. Now she understands what her master told her. The purpose of her paintings is not commercial but for the interpretation and expression of the beauty in objects. Now she only sells her works to people who appreciate them and she does not paint on commission.“It’s just not me,” she said. “If you like my paintings, you can buy them. If you don’t like them, I’m not upset. I’d rather that people buy my paintings because they appreciate them and want to put them up on the wall. I hate it when people buy them because they want to please me or do me a favour. It upsets me when friends and relatives buy my paintings from exhibitions, take them home and put them in storage because there is nowhere to hang them. It upsets me because I work so hard on them.”Thida’s works are inspired by her fondness for flowers. She has been creating large collections of flower paintings over the past 12 years. “I only paint flowers, so the concept of my exhibitions is always flowers. I hardly paint any other subjects now. I started off painting flowers and wanted to master them. I do gardening and have plants so flowers are in my environment. Even when I tag along with groups of artist friends to paint in nature, I still find flowers to paint.”Her flower collections have been exhibited at more than 20 exhibitions in Thailand and abroad in the past six years. Her favourite collection, “Only the Best”, made up a solo exhibition in Singapore in 2012. She showed me a booklet of the collection and her favourite paintings of a red thorny African flower, to which she had added finishing touches of “black magic lines” to highlight its beauty. This marked a new chapter of her signature painting techniques.Now Thida enjoys extending her collections for pleasure and sometimes‘I only paint flowers, so the concept of my exhibitions is always flowers’for mindfulness. She creates the exhibition themes but sometimes under the concept of the curators or event organizers.Time passed quickly as we spoke. I could feel that painting was no longer “just a hobby” to Thida but had become a facet of her life which was still growing. Asked if she considered herself a famous artist now, she replied that there are no criteria or standards for judging a work of art. Beingfamous or not is not important but learning to accept ourselves and others is and that’s what she learned from painting. Thida loves to paint because she sees herself grow spiritually. When she started out, she was worried she would make mistakes and the works would not come out right. Then she learned that there are always ways to solve problems and mistakes are just part of the learning process.“Mistakes happen often. I fix them.Elite+ 41