Meaningful Textures

Chamnan Chongpaiboon’s deceptively simple compositions may appear to be straightforward graphic portrayals of the beauty of woman, outlined by a vibrant colour palette and a glimpse of retro fashion in pop-art settings.

However, closer perusal of his colourful series of female faces uncovers surprising new dimensions of meaningful textures contained within their striking, unsmiling images.

Hidden depths emerge from carefullyconstructed background patterns made up of thousands of raised dots, creating a kaleidoscope of circles that give these seemingly bland faces deep intensity and meaning.

Chongpaiboon is a master of this Pointillism Technique  - also used in traditional Australian Aboriginal art - which he carries out meticulously on each painting, working free-hand to finesse the stippling details for days and sometimes weeks on end, without any technological assistance.

It’s an impressively perfectionist method of texture construction, with each of his works consisting of thousands of dots, each dropped freehand with almost identical size and precise spacing.

The meaning in each portrait goes even deeper - for by using dots to construct these faces he’s also making reference to the ritualistic Buddhist Mandala Circle and a meditative state of mind.

For Chongpaiboon, each dot represents an alphabet; the continuous stream of dots that form circles represents the forming of words; and several rings of circles put together in one place represents the forming of a story.

The idea of Circle also refers to even deeper meanings - as a Buddhist, Chongpaiboon believes in the notion of a Wheel of Dhamma, which represents completeness, peace, and eternity.

His influences of Buddhism and Aboriginal art are augmented by a love of the graphic style of Japanese print-making, especially that of his favourite Japanese artist Yayoi, a strong inspiration in his explicitly feminine-inspired works.

Although these expressionless portraits give no indication of emotional states, their charm comes from simple forms, vivid colours, and the intriguing technique of texture construction.

Chamnan was born in Kanchanaburi and now lives and works in Bangkok. He earned a BA in Fine Art from Silpakorn University and has exhibited in Australia, New York, Miami, London, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Thailand.

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