Somboon Phoungdorkmai was Born in 1959 to a humble Thai family in Prachinburi a province between Bangkok and the Cambodian border. She discovered early her attraction to art when she first started to draw patterns of dolls that were cut from cardboard, As a consequence, she realized that she enjoyed more the manufacture and decoration of her toys than really playing with them.
She was a stubborn teenager who had to fight against the will of her mother to attend the course at Thaivichisilp and Poh-Chang Arts and Crafts Colleges in Bangkok, and when she became an adult, Somboon had to work as an art teacher, a compromise to keep in touch with art and sustain her living. Tired from hours spent in the traffic between her house and the college and inspired by her participation to the Van Group, a knot of five friends expressing concern about society and human condition in a surrealistic style, Somboon left teaching and turned to freelance work.
Very eclectic, Somboon has a profound liking for watercolour, a media that allows her to stand in-situ and paint spontaneously. In this way, flowers, nature and landscapes become some of her favourites topics through which she cultivates a sharp sense of observation with a highly developed concentration to record faithfully either the light and/or the colour of the weather.
This skill came into its own when she encountered the magnificent site of Angkor in Cambodia and spent several months there to produce a huge record of watercolour paintings finally published in a book that resulted in a wide recognition of her talent in Thailand and abroad. Similarlarly work in another famous place of South-East Asia, Luang Prabang in Laos, brought to her even more credit due to her ability to render genuinely the atmosphere of the location with paintings standing halfway between figurative and impressionist styles.
Contact: http/:www.artsomdede.com
Somboon Phoungdorkmal
