Ahjan Surasit Saokong

Ahjan Surasit Saokong is a senior artist and art teacher at Rajamangkala Institute of Technology in Chiang Mai.I visited his home studio where his wife (who speaks excellent English) provided translation for a long chat.Ahjan Surasit's work has focused on a single series since 1979- titled "Serenity."In fact, serenity oozes from Surasit's pores.Exploring the play of light and shadow in hyper-real Northern Thailand temple environments is his goal, with his Buddhist faith represented in each piece by a single light source shattering the darkness of the surroundings and providing a point of emanating warmth.He commented that his interest is in creating something that is "better than real," and that this reflect the inner state of peace that he achieves through painting and imagining these scenes.Surasit shared that many people want to visit the temples he paints- and he has to admit that they don't exist as depicted- only in his imagination.