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Just wanted to let folks know that I’ve taken a little vacation back to Thailand to visit family. I try to do this every year for a few weeks. And now that I have a son, it’s great to bring him back with me and get him used to the Thai-style of life. He loves it.

Also while I’m in Thailand I usually take the opportunity to learn some new form of art. Last year it was tattoos (yep I did some neat tattoos on family members - thanks). This year I’m going to take a new class on fruit carving. Though I know a little already, I’m very excited to study with some masters and really get into it. I’ve also got a commission with my brother for some sculptures for a local temple and so I’ll keep busy on that.

I’ll bring back some pictures. I hope everyone is well.

Bye,
Pla

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I’ve worked in a number of different cafes over the years and am a huge coffee lover.

I recently heard of a competition around latte art — the ability to create artwork out of the foam of lattes. This was something that I learned a bit about a number of years ago when I was living and working in Sydney.

I loved playing with the foam and I eventually got a little bit of a following at Charlies down in Manly.

Just like fruit carving and vegetable carving, latte art is a great way to make something that you eat (or drink) a piece of art. And what I love about it is that it is so Thai. Thais are reknown for their food art and it’s great to see people from all over the world practicing something similar.

Art doesn’t need to last forever. Maybe it only lasts a minute. But it should always spark an emotion.

www.coffeegeek.com

Find out more about Latte Art Competitions

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Of course I am Thai. And, I like to think of myself as an artist. So I must be a Thai artist, right?

I don’t use a lot of classic Thai art symbolism in my paintings. As you look through the paintings that I’ve included here on my site, very few have any direct Thai symbols. It may appear that I’ve really become a Westerner.

I certainly have refocused my painting towards Western Impressionism but that does not mean that everything I paint doesn’t come from my Thai background. In fact, Thai art and Thai subjects are an important part of everything that I create. They are in my very nature.

I grew up studying classic Thai art. In my sculptures I am much more comfortable focusing on Thai subjects (Thai art symbols are very difficult to paint). Here I am, when I was younger and still living in Thailand, working on a Thai monk statue for a monestary in Korat.

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I’ve always struggled with portrait painting. It’s just so difficult to capture the essence of the individual.

Imagine the self portrait. How do you capture yourself?

Well, I’m not totally satisfied but I wanted to share with you my own version of — me.

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Ok. Time for some more fun with food carving. This time I’d like to walk through the individual steps for carving a pineapple.

Pineapples are already one of the most beautiful fruits out there. With their crazy skins and rich deep yellow centers, there is nothing like a pineapple. But carving pineapples can not only help to make them even more interesting on a plate, but they also can be a lot more inviting to eat with a little preparation.

Step 1: Cut the pineapple in half the long way.

Step 2: Cut away the bottom and top of the pineapple. Don’t be afraid to cut a little way in because both the base and the top of pineapples have pretty hard cores so they’re not really good to eat anyways. Also, cut out the core that runs down the center of each of your halves. I like to cut this core out with two cuts so that you end up with a triangle shape.

Step 3: Cut each of your halves in half again. You now have four long pieces of pineapple. Then skin the pineapple and cut away the “eyes” of the pineapple. This is a little difficult and will take some practice. When doing this, work on a bit of a diagonal down the pineapple.

Step 4: Make some decorative cuts lengthwise down the pineapple. In the picture below one slice uses one larger cut down the middle and the other slice has a couple of cuts, adding a little more decoration.

Step 5: Cut up each of your lengths of pineapple into nice bite size pieces and arrange them decoratively on a nice plate.

Step 6: Hold off from eating too many before you can serve them to your guests.

Let me know what you think. Don’t they taste better this way?

Sapparot Aroy.

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