"This new set of art is inspired by the flowers in nature which bloom in different seasons. While I travel in different places, at different times, the beauty of flowers hypnotizes me through their colours and forms.

So I picked up the distinct colours and the natural forms of the flowers and then added in my own thoughts to create works of art. I desire to make new work pieces, avoiding the humdrum of the routine by walking out of the old mindset and limitations by setting the outer tonal colour as I see fit and draw flowers with movement, letting them float around, and fade, fall in a surrealistic style."

- Somboon Phoungdorkmai

About the Artist

Somboon Phoungdorkmai was Born in 1959 to a humble Thai family in Prachinburi, a province between Bangkok and the Cambodian border. 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. On graduation, Somboon worked as an art teacher but later 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 favourite 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. Similarly 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. Following a similar process during 1997 and 1998 Somboon Phoungdorkmai engaged herself in a detailed work about the celebrated town of Luang Prabang, which belongs now to the World Heritage. The results of the works were notably inaugurated by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindorn during the exhibition at the Rajanakarn Building. Later a third massive book was sponsored which includes many of her works up until 2005.