Hello all, quick hello from Vientiane, the capital of Laos!  The city is a lot more developed than I expected, although mostly within tourist spots.  The seperation between locals & foreigners feels very Colonial, quite unlike Thailand.  The capital is full of charming, dilapidated French colonial buildings and Communist style monuments, also dilapidated.  Locals seem surprisingly unSoutheast Asian in that they are meek and seem nervous around white foreigners, who are numerous in the city centre.  This city has the strongest & most authentic cafe culture I've seen in Asia.

bodies

oil on canvas

20x20cm

 French roses

oil on fabric

20x20cm

 

leather shoes

oil on canvas

20x20cm

 untitled

collage on paper

20x30cm

玻璃

oil on canvas

40x30cm

untitled

oil and acrylic on canvas

20x30cm

 crystals

oil and glitter on canvas

20x20cm

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I've been working on a new group of paintings for the last few months.  Using fashion magazines, collage references and pattern studies, I'm working my way out of my earlier work into a kind of 2D work that is more like small visual projects.  I feel some of my earlier paintings "fit" within this group, such as wedding and this collage, along with a reworked version of leather shoes, which is pictured above.

I'm happy with the way this is heading.  And feedback would be lovely, although the quality of the above photographs is lacking.