Student artist Lampu Kansanoh is ready to devote her life to painting
Story by PLOENPOTE ATTHAKOR Photo by YINGYONG UN-ANONGRAK
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| Lampu Kansanoh can paint all day when working at home in Samut Songkhram’s Amphawa district. |
Like Italian artist Michelangelo, who is known to have lacked interest in school at an early age, Toshiba award-winning artist Lampu Kansanoh says she fares better in painting than studying.
"Really, I am not very intelligent and would eventually end up nowhere if I went ahead with conventional schooling. My family also realises this," said the 25-year-old art student, a native of Amphawa, in Samut Songkram province.
Unlike the Italian artist, Lampu is able to pursue formal art studies.
With support from her parents, she enrolled in the College of Fine Arts in Lat Krabang, majoring in painting and performed quite impressively in class. She furthered her studies at Silpakorn University's Sculpture, Painting and Graphic Art Faculty, graduating with second honours and is now studying in a master's programme in the same faculty.
She has made an impressive success with a number of awards to her credit. The latest was the first prize in the 20th Toshiba "Brings Good Things to Life" 2008 competition, which she won in the university and general public category. The work is among other entries on display at an exhibition at the National Gallery that ends tomorrow. After the National Gallery, her work, Massage for Grandma, will be on show at exhibitions in Chiang Mai and Pattani provinces.
Lampu also won a similar top award in the previous year in the youth category. In that same year, she grabbed four other awards, mostly top prizes, from prestigious art events including the Silpa Bhirasri Art Contest and the National Art Competition.
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| Massage for Grandma’ wins gold prize at the 20th Toshiba Art Competition 2008. |
When asked how many awards she had received since her first contest in 2005, Lampu paused to think for a while, smiling shyly before saying that there were so many she couldn't remember exactly.
The art student said she liked painting when she was a young girl.
However, she decided to stop for a long while in order to concentrate on conventional studies. It wasn't until she finished secondary school that the idea of studying art came to mind. This field, she said, was like the "light at the end of the tunnel".
Lampu then took an entrance exam for a place in the College of Fine Arts, where she was accepted. It was the first time she moved to Bangkok to study.
"Actually, I didn't dare have any expectations [of winning a place at the college], because I had not practiced for such a long time. It was just something out of the blue," she said.
Lampu recalled the first days at the College of Fine Arts when she felt she was truly a newcomer who did not know anything. Again, she lacked confidence that she could make it.
"All my classmates were so amazing and smart while I could not even do a basic, simple thing like drawing a still object," she said. But that helped inspire her enormously. She said she had to work very hard to catch up with other students in class.
"My father gave me the encouragement. When he was a young student, he loved to be an artist. But my grandma didn't let him as we were not a well-to-do family. Instead she sent him to a teachers' college, which secured him a job after graduation. So he lent me his support when I chose this field," said Lampu.
According to Lampu, the college normally allows freshmen to take all basic art courses - various techniques of sculpture and painting - and they have to decide for themselves what to pursue.
She thought sculpture was fun but eventually fell head over heels for painting. "At first I thought I liked watercolour but I later found that oil on canvas suits me best. With oil painting, I can work - or stop and resume - anytime I feel like it. For watercolour, whenever you start, you have to paint non-stop until the work is done to make it good. Watercolour is for even-tempered people and I am certainly not," she said.
She described herself as a fast and quick-tempered type.
"It's not uncommon that I finish my work in just two days. Actually I can paint all day from dawn till dusk especially when working at home. That's probably because there are no places to go in my town. Samut Songkram is a very small province," Lampu said, adding she now spends most of her time at home when free from class.
The art student also pioneered painting on patterned plastic sheets in her early work before she eventually settled on oil on canvas.
Most of her paintings primarily feature the lives of middle-class people in the central region, she said, adding: "Normally, it's something that we can see around us, sort of a familiar sight."
Yet, Lampu's paintings are unique as she meticulously blends caricature techniques into them. On top of that, the art student always makes happiness and loving family ties the central theme of her works.
Her award-winning piece in the 20th Toshiba Art Competition this year is no exception.
The sheer size of Massage for Grandma, at two by two metres, makes the painting impressive. It features two young children heartily doing a massage for their grandmother. The youngsters giggle as they enthusiastically help each other in the massage, while the grandma drools with happiness.
"When I was young, Mum always asked me to do a massage for her. Like other children who cared more for playing, I did it with half-heartedness. I later realised that the effect of my massaging was not physical but psychological. As a child, my massaging was not really good, but my mother still appreciated it all the same. So, it's not about massaging, it's about love, care and happiness from giving within the family," she said.
The art student stressed that while others think happiness comes from receiving, she said happiness, in her view, arises from giving.
While several artists tend to reflect society in a dim, negative way, Lampu said most of her works are filled with humour, happiness and optimism.
One of her outstanding works features a very old couple in wedding attire laughing heartily on their special day. It emerged as the third-place winner in the 54th National Art Competition last year.
"I like to make the characters in my paintings as well as the audience happy," she said.
Caricature is a perfect technique that helps her communicate her ideas to the audience, Lampu said.
"Distortion in an object or a person - whether exaggeratedly extended or shrunk - in caricature does a great job of highlighting certain points that I would like to present to the audience, particularly through facial expressions or posture.
The art student said she paid much attention to her characters' faces.
"For it is the main part that faces the audience," she said.
Now Lampu is preparing for another step forwards - her first solo exhibition which will be unveiled at Ardel gallery of modern art. Before this, she only took part in group exhibitions.
Titled, "From Nonsense to Sense", the exhibition is scheduled to open January 14 and will be on view until February 22.
Lampu said most works in the exhibition are old pieces from her class workshops, beginning from her undergraduate programme at Silpakorn, and are in the same collection as award-winning ones.
"The award-winning works belong to the contest organisers. I have no time to make new paintings for the event," Lampu said.
When asked about her future plans after completing the master's programme from Silpakorn University in October next year, Lampu said she dreams of becoming an artist.
"Without question, I'd like to be an independent artist and that is on the condition that I can make a living from it. But as it is known, Thais hardly shop for works of art and few artists can sell enough paintings each year."
If she cannot be an artist, the art student said she will take a teaching job.
But she will never stop painting, Lampu said with determination.
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