Art sale at Hung Fat’s restaurant for Phuket charity
Holly Maitland Smith is just four years old, yet her work has already featured in nine exhibitions in Phuket and Bangkok. This is the acrylics-on-canvas painting that will be for sale at the charity event.
Works of art donated by internationally-renowned artists, galleries and local children will be up for sale on December 9 at Hung Fat’s restaurant, Kalim Beach, with all proceeds to go to the Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation (PHBGTUF).
Included in the line-up is a Warholesque portrait of Mao Zedong (valued at B100,000) by Alan Boswell, a landscape with cheetahs (valued the same) by South African impressionist Paul Van Rensburg, and an abstract work by locally-based Varaporn “Map” Pornrit called Inspired by Nature and valued at B140,000.
More affordable is a painting of foliage by Chiang-Mai based artist Apichat Panuwong, valued at B7,000, and two portaits of monks by Burmese painter Zaw Zaw, valued at B25,000 and B35,000.
Also on sale will be a dozen or more remarkably sophisticated paintings by local kids ranging in age from nine to 12 years old and one – the most surprising of all – by Holly Maitland Smith, who is just four years old. Holly, a pupil at the British International School, started painting on canvas when she just two, and since then has completed approximately 250 works. She has her own website here.
Entry to the event costs B1,000 a head, which includes two glasses of wine or beer, and canapés. Apart from an auction, there will also be a prize raffle.
All proceeds will go the the PHBGTUF, which was started after the 2004 Asian Tsunami by the late Tom McNamara, founder of the Baan Rim Pa restaurant group, which includes Hung Fat’s. The foundation currently supports 600 children by educating them to international standards in English, with the aim of giving them a better chance, long-term, at a satisfying and productive career.
As Tom explained when he set up the foundation, “Education is a gift that stays with you forever. You can’t sell it and nobody can take it away from you. It is the best way for us to give back to this island that has been so good to us.” The PHBGTUF website is here.
