“Wat Ban Pong”
Oil/panel
18” x 12”
2026
“Wat” means temple in Thai. And Ban Pong is the name of the village where I make sculpture in Northern Thailand. So the title of this painting means the Temple of Ban Pong. It is white and sits on a hill above the town. I like catching glimpses of it in the gleaming midday sun or lit up at night and poking through the trees as I glide home after dark on my scooter.
“Ban Pong”
Oil/panel
48” x 33”
2026
Ban Pong is the name of the village where I live and make art part of the year. I don’t paint there. Not much anyway. I make sculpture. And I love the village where my house and studio are located. There are probably no more than 300 people there with only a few little shops and places to eat. But there are 2 fantastic little coffee shops. Ban Pong also has a small river running through it and is surrounded by steep hills that quickly assemble a huge mountain range.
On top of one of these hills sits a stunning white temple that serves a much larger community than just this small village. On special Buddhist holidays hundreds of people arrive to ascend the 1000 steps up to the temple to make merit or participate in various festivities. The building and surrounding grounds are meticulously kept and constantly being added to and improved upon. During the day it’s gleaming white walls shine in the bright sun and at night it is brightly lit with powerful lights and can be seen for miles. Occasionally, when a storm approaches it will fall into shadow from heavy clouds and almost appears black. The jungle below it is a riotous tangle of green and black and the river is always gray as it is essentially the sewer service for the whole valley and all the villages that follow the rural highway that goes on steadily up for over 50 miles.
The painting was not a deliberate attempt to paint the temple or the village. In fact I painted it in a little studio I have set up in the south of Thailand at my friend’s house. But it looks like a concept painting of the village and its temple. It’s a mess of textures and colors. But so is the village.
The temple appears in the painting as a white schmear on the far right looking very much like it’s being engulfed in the harsh midday light of the tropics and the humid air rising up from the jungle and brilliant green paddies below. At the top is the cerelium sky and at the bottom is the gray river of a thousand sewers.
It doesn’t look like the village in any typical way but it very much feels like it to me. In fact, it looks and feels more like the whole of the village. Whereas the photos I have look very much like the particulars of the village in the frame of the camera but capture nothing of the place as a whole.
Maybe the title should be “Ban Pong: the whole of it.”
“Wat Ban Pong”
Oil/panel
24” x 24”
2026
High on a hill above the little village sits a gleaming white temple where everyone goes. Below it squats a neglected temple rotting in the rice paddies of riotous green. The blue Sky is the eye’s great equalizer.
“Black Temple on a hot day”
Oil/panel
18” x 12”
2026
Thailand is known for its many temples. But it is also known for its many temples that are focused on a particular color. And they really go all out to make everything that one color. However, I never saw a black temple. But I imagine it would be really cool.
Here I painted a temple on a very hot and humid day. Obviously I wasn’t attempting to paint a literal or particular temple or even an impression of a temple. It’s more like an idea of a temple set in the climatic weather conditions I was immersed in at the time: hot humid and hazy tropical days.
“No title yet”
Oil/panel
24” x 24”
2026
Sometimes a piece just insists that it is finished. I have tried several times to continue developing this piece but each time I stop short of adding anything to it. Someday I may understand why.
“The Temple”
Oil/panel
22” x 14”
2026
I started this painting by rolling paint on to a leaf I cut from a plant in front of my building. Then I pressed it on to the panel. Once that dried I painted and scraped paint over it. I was going to smear more white paint over the leaf to make it look more like the white temple on the hill above my village. But I decided it looked enough like a temple already. So here it is.
“Blue Smear”
Oil/panel
24” x 18”
2026
What is it? Who knows? But I can’t paint over it. So, hopefully time will help decide whether it’s worth the space it takes up.
