Hippo Pon

My favorite place to stroll around is the weekend market. Always crowded, hectic and hot, but I enjoy the sounds, smells, funny tourists, food and snacks. The main reason I roam the narrow alleys is to find hippos, of course. Last weekend I found a very dusty one made of glass, on a lower shelf, buried by rhinos! My favorite place of the market is the art section. Last year, I already noticed an artist whose work I really like… the only “problem”: no hippos! He paints elephants, mostly. Besides that I have seen koi (fish), cranes, roosters and horses. A few months ago I decided to just ask (I thought, I waited long enough for the artist to come up with the brilliant idea to paint a hippo, no?). The manager of that little shop turns out to be the nephew of the artist. He told me that he was sure his uncle could paint a hippo for me. His uncle is Mr. Surapon Pittayasakul (Pon). He is not only a painter, but also a writer and an award-winning cartoonist. In just nine months of studying with a Chinese monk, Pon mastered the unusual brush painting technique. First he used hand–ground Chinese ink on rice paper, later he moved to acrylic paint on canvas. After my hippo-hunt last week, I enjoyed a cold drink and a chat on a small chair in front of the shop. The nephew told me, it was the first time his uncle painted a hippo, and he enjoyed it very much. I will just wait and see, whether the painter decides to paint more hippos. So I might end up not having the only one, but I definitely have Mr. Pon's first!

   Pon2Art

                             Hippo Pon - December 2011