Sunday, February 7, 2010

Thai Hill Tribes ...

As you can see, I got a bit on a roll with Thailand and started on a photo scanning rampage from my old photo albums. Pre-digital, you know!

These photos are from a trip we took in 1987 from Bangkok North to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We visited elephant camps, went up to the Golden Triangle, took a long tail boat on the river between Thailand and Burma and visited some hill tribes. The Hill Tribes were my favorite.

Hill Tribes, Thailand 1987





It was another world, especially for a me, a Southern California girl who, before my parents moved to Thailand, had only been on a cruise ship to Baja. (However fun it was, drinking virgin frozen daiquiris and baking in the sun sans SPF wasn't exactly a deep soul expanding cultural experience.)

Being in Thailand opened me up to the world. The beauty as well as the suffering. I had wanted to travel since I was little girl drinking tea and listening to my elderly neighbor tell her stories of traveling to Europe and Asia on steamer ships between and after the world wars. I was completely fascinated. I wanted explore the world and meet different kinds of people and in Thailand the world was just as fascinating and wonderful as I had imagined. I wanted to share it with everyone I knew. I guess I still do!

Hill Tribe Child oil on canvas 2006


"Travel is more than the seeing of sights;

it is a change that goes on,

deep and permanent,

in the ideas of living."

~Miriam Beard


7 comments:

PK Studios said...

I don't remember seeing this painting! You did this before you started classes? It's lovely.

Cobalt Violet said...

Yes, it was my first oil in so many years ... I think it's what gave me the boost to take painting at UCLA. I sold it Shea! (Since she lived there and went there with us, it was perfect!)

Rebecca said...

great pictures
http://etherealbeaute.blogspot.com/

jane said...

oh it´s wonderful!!

Asja said...

Both photographs and your painting are really beautiful and touching.

erin's art and gardens said...

oh sweety...i love the painting!! the colors, the expression...love it!

Joop Zand said...

Fantastic this painting....lovely colors.
my compliments

warm greetings from Holland, Joop