As soon as the topic was introduced, I immediately knew I wanted to paint this. It's one of my favourite places in the world, Ayudhya, the ancient capital of Thailand. It's a deeply peaceful and spiritual place, with enormous sculptures of serene Buddhas dotted around temples, ruins, and gardens that are still tended. You could be forgiven for thinking that the sculptures were real.
Although Thailand is the country of my birth, I've never lived there and it's never really been home to me. Home has not really been about place as much as it's been about the people I'm close to. But this place brought me the closest I've ever come to feeling rooted somewhere, or to what I imagine it feels like to know you're definitely FROM somewhere. It stirs something very deep in me, something that is about belonging both to a physical, earthly place as well as to a more ethereal spiritual realm.
Watercolour and ink pen, 17.5.06
These drawings and the photos that inspired them are also up on bingo and betty's site Buddha Karma Central.
4 comments:
Very touching post. I would love to go to Thailand someday. The way you describe Ayudhya is exactly how I inmagine it to be. Very beautiful paintng.
I feel very touched too. Very beautiful work and writing.
Hey this is beautiful! I like the colors you chose for the buddha figures and the trees behind. They create an amazingly serene visual effect!
hey Tammy can you email me at bingoandbetty@hotmail.com
http://buddhakarmacentral.blogspot.com/
thanks b&b
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