Love in Bangkok: January 2014

New York artist, Justin Love, presents 18 paintings from January 17-31 at the Dream Hotel in Bangkok – with an assorted collection of unframed works. The series showcases works from previous studio locations – New York, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Vietnam, as well as new pieces painted in Bangkok.

On natural textual paper, or with a backdrop of Thai wallpaper and other texts, Love depicts portraits in pop art form – in vibrant colour and brush-strokes. Bangkok explores themes of the orient, flowers, the ocean, butterflies, women, royalty and the colour red. “Asiatique” – “Queen in Green” – “Blue in the Garden of Flowers” – “Splash (the mermaid)” – “Spiritual” – “Colorful” – “Red Dream” – “Hipodelic” – and “Butterflies Lobby Dream 1” are titles from the framed collection. Striking in pink and black is the piece, “Beatles with Guitars.”

Justin Love spends months in a location to absorb the images and atmosphere of the country he paints. For the Bangkok pieces, many are painted from his hotel room in the Dream Hotel 2 at Sukhumvit Soi 15. “I can’t use oil when painting in the hotel room due to the smell,” which influenced his paintings on unusual papers of natural fibres or prints.

My favourite was “Man with Hat (after Lautrec)” which is simplistically and stylistically drawn on black and gold print, yet complex in its preparation. “It looks easy to paint something like this, but I probably painted 1,000 works to get the image I wanted,” Love said. Inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French artist, printer and illustrator (1864-1901) – who in turn was inspired by classical Japanese woodprints – the impressionist art was popular in Paris. The “Man with Hat (after Lautrec)” follows Lautrec’s emphasis on contour, with long brush-strokes – known as “drawings in coloured paint.”
(www.justinlove.com )

 Justin Love with "Man with Hat (after Lautrec)"

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).