Monks with Traits of Crows

The work is presented in a surrealist manner, making it stand out from conventional Thai paintings. 

The artist chooses crows, an animal from Thai mythology, as his subject matter. The painting portrays human faces with a sharp crow beak.  The human bodies are presented as bigger than normal.

Anupong Chantorn presents social problems in his painting, particularly those related to religion. His works narrate the origin of Buddhist art and present Buddhist philosophy, which inspires the artist. 

These half-human and half-animal entities, a combination of humans, hungry ghosts, and crows, are desperately struggling to eat food from Buddhist monks’ alms bowls.

Tattoos and lucky charms seen all over the bodies function as symbols; they are expressions of inappropriate behaviour. In his painting, non-human entities are clothed in saffron robes, a symbol of Buddhist monks. 

The artist places an emphasis on light and shadow, and instead of using brush strokes, he makes use of pointillism, a technique in which small dots of colours are applied to form an image.

This technique does not only help him to achieve the full liveliness of each colour, but also helps to create dimensions that add realist elements to the paintings. 

This technique of pointillism is of paramount importance to the work, enabling the artist to control the mixture and cohesion of each colour dot. Furthermore, it adds precision to the waiting in terms of the expression of the quality of texture. 

The use of a varying degree of heaviness makes his work much more complete.
 

Materials such as saffron robes are intentionally selected instead of canvases in his painting. 

This use of such material is a signature of the artist. The choice draws attention to the interconnectedness between art and religion, a main source of his artistic inspiration.

The artist fascinatingly creates valuable contemporary art, inspired by folklores, mythological stories, religion and social problems. The work encourages viewers to think about morality, karmic law and religious principles of right and wrong.