Thank you very much for visiting my online world – Esan Girl : Real Thai Beauty. I hope you enjoy your visit.

Esan Girl is an art project which I started in 2017. It has become the most important creative enterprise of my life, and the project masterpiece paintings are the finest art pieces I have ever made. Two ideas are the foundation of the project.

Esan Girl is a celebration of Esan, and its natural beauty. I am Esan. I was born in Esan. I grew up in an Esan family, working in the rice industry. It is the place where my life as an artist began. Esan is my home, it is my country, and it has influenced my life through its people, culture, and landscape.

The Greek philosopher, Plato, working 2500 years ago, considered the true purpose of an artist is to represent beauty. He believed the highest form of beauty to be female beauty, perfect beauty, standing above all other forms of beauty. I have spent 50 years as an artist following this purpose; depicting beauty in natural landscapes, my Lotus Flower series, and portraiture. With Esan Girl, I return to the highest form of beauty, female beauty.

Esan people combine both Thai and Lao ethnicity. They work hard on the land. They eat a healthy, natural diet. The family, the village, the rice farm, the water, and the temple are the basis of life. Esan people represent a unique form of Being Thai, based on the region’s culture, landscape and lifestyle. Esan people are warm, kind, and caring. Their lives are connected to the land. They make and repair things, rather than buy things. They talk, not watch TV. They grow and cook their own food, not eat in restaurants. They eat som tam, not burgers and pizza. Their hard work in the rice paddies follows the solar calendar, not the 9 till 5 city week. Even in great adversity, they smile and support one another.

Being Esan is a special form of Being Thai. It is from this identity that the natural beauty of the people flows. Girls from Esan have great natural beauty, which reflects their life, their culture and their connection with nature. I work with “normal” Esan girls, regular people I meet in my everyday life, not professional models. Since Esan Girl is concerned with natural beauty and Esan culture, I work with models who represent, completely, and naturally, the identity of Esan.

Esan Girl is a personal journey, and an invitation to everyone to discover Esan. It is my love-letter to Esan, written not in words, but with the strokes of the brush. It is a celebration of everything Esan.

As an art student at Chulalongkorn University in the 1980’s, I had the great privilege to study European art, particularly the Renaissance artists. I learned that the Renaissance artists were influenced by Plato’s ideas, and I follow in their footsteps. I take inspiration from the greatest artists including Leonardo, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Titian. When I look at the Leonardo’s painting of the Mona Lisa, or Michelangelo’s David sculpture, I see perfect beauty. I see Plato’s ideas in real life. I see the human body as the highest form of beauty. And I am inspired to paint perfect beauty, the beauty I see in Esan. Esan Girl is a fusion of East and West, the combination of Asian beauty and European aesthetics. Wiith each brush stroke, each creation, I gain greater understanding of the meaning of beauty, the pre-eminence of nature, and what it means to be Esan. Esan Girl is my destiny. I was born to paint perfect Esan beauty.

I hope that Esan Girl provides inspiration to others. I want all Esan people to feel proud of their history, their culture, their heritage, and their important contribution to being Thai. Esan life is sustainable life. It has survived more than 6000 years of drought, floods, wars and the rise and fall of empires. The world can learn much about resilience and sustainability from Esan. I invite artists to explore the beauty of Esan, and to join me on this journey. I encourage the world to visit Esan to discover this earthly paradise. I speak to every Thai girl – look in the mirror and understand that true beauty flows from nature, from the gods, not from the hand of man. And I say to all Thai people, that by understanding Esan, you will know what it means to be Thai, to be human. This is a journey for everyone.

The masterpiece paintings are available for the public to view, 6 days per week, at the Real Thai Beauty World showroom, located at Hua Hin Artist Village, Hin Lek Fai, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan.

My soul can find no staircase to Heaven, unless it be through Earth’s loveliness. Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564