Sa-Ngiam Yarangsee

An unrelenting passion for nature and a predilection for vivid colors is Sa-ngiam Yarangsee’s signature as an artist. Sa-ngiam’s mountains, skies, and blossoming trees are densely textured and he manipulates the effect of light on color with great expertise. His paintings consequently relate to Impressionism but emerge as more. Despite the artist’s tendency to dissect light with a subtle differentiation of color, the contours of his subject matter are well-defined with clarity and suggest sympathy towards realism. Essentially, he boasts the glory of the Northern Thai landscape of Chiang Rai.

Sa-ngiam’s muse is the mountain of Mae Salong, where dashing pink cherry blossoms inspired him to settle for more than a decade. However, the artist recently spent time in France and subsequently began to introduce man-made elements such as houses and bridges into his oeuvre. These paintings, however, retain a great sense of the contemplative and, moreover, allowed him to introduce a subdued color scheme. This color scheme, the artist has said, was the psychological effect of a climate far less sunny than the one he was used to in Thailand. But, regardless of Sa-ngiam’s locality, his concerns remain consistent: “…the mountains, the clouds, and the wind are constantly the source of my inspiration. Solitude amidst nature, not social interaction, gives me the kind of peace of mind that defines and gives meaning to my life”.