Tawee is most thankful to his mum and dad for their precious gift of life, which he experiences and savours with each breath. Tawee has a life-view in close alignment with the teachings of Buddha and neither dwells upon the past nor worries about the future, because he chooses to live in the present moment. An even-tempered nature-lover, Tawee has taken the opportunity to travel widely whenever opportunity has arisen. He has visited Asian and European destinations including China, Japan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, India, Poland, Germany, Italy, England, France and Switzerland, with the latest trip being an international watercolour exhibition in Beijing in April, 2026. Tawee is keen to rent a small home in Luang Prabang, Laos to live and work there for an extended holiday, as it reminds him so strongly of the unspoilt Thailand of his youth, where everyone was a native and life was less complex. Travel has been central to Tawee’s life and art, as it is a potent source of inspiration.

What is amazing about Tawee’s career is that he has never once had a boss or drawn a monthly salary. This is a claim few can make, and it comes with both opportunity and responsibility, particularly for a husband and father. Tawee believes that his God has played a pivotal role in his destiny and general good fortune and that each change of direction has been not at his instigation, but rather brought about by a particular event or person he encountered. Tawee was only a youngster when his maternal uncle foretold that Tawee’s future lay in the world of art, based on Tawee’s love of drawing on all the blank surfaces he could find with a piece of charcoal. Tawee recalls his pride at the admiration his early drawings received from other villagers. Using terminology applied to the work of major European artists to describe different times of their careers, with different colours, styles, media and techniques, Tawee describes his charcoal sketching as his “first period”.

Family has always played an important role in Tawee’s life. He was born and grew up until the age of 14 in a small village near Ubon Ratchathani in the Isan region of Thailand. He shared his parents with three siblings, two brother and one sister, although his mother also gifted him five half-siblings from her previous marriage. One of Tawee’s brothers is now passed, but his other two sibling are also artists who form an integral part of the community at Baan Silapin. Tawee’s parents were rice farmers and living conditions in the little village were basic yet Tawee was happy living what he described as a “perfect life”. The children made their own fun, there was no electricity and not even a local market. To eat, you had to catch or gather food. As a young boy, Tawee encountered two hunters who inspired his childhood aim of perhaps becoming a hunter himself when he grew up.

When he was 19, Tawee left the monkhood and enrolled in college at the Academy of Art in Ubon Ratchathani for three years to gain formal training in a wide variety of art styles and techniques. Since he had not graduated from secondary school, this diploma gave Tawee credentials to apply to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at Chulalongkorn University. The faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at the university is widely regarded as Thailand’s most prestigious and Tawee’s portfolio of work gained him admission. As well as encouraging him to develop his own style, Tawee’s degree, completed over five years, required him to explore the history of art and its connection to culture. Tawee came to understand his perpetual drive to create and the eternal nature of art: art is long, life is short.

While art was the focus of Tawee’s university studies, it also had to provide for his everyday needs, in a similar way to how good food can be found on a street-food stall as well as in a fine-dining restaurant. Although they are different dining experiences, both satisfy a body’s hunger. Tawee needed to create, and then sell, his art to support himself and luckily his talent was recognised quickly and he had many solo exhibitions in Bangkok, developing a group of followers amongst Thai art collectors, some of whom have purchased his art since his university years. Tawee is very grateful for the support of Mr Julian Cooper from the UK who has been a long-term collector of his work. Mr Suwat Liptapanlop is another key supporter who has a strong appreciation of Tawee’s talents. Mr Liptapanlop’s group owns both the Intercontinental Hua Hin Resort and the Holiday Inn and Tawee has sold him hundreds of paintings to decorate their walls. Mr Liptapanlop shares Tawee’s vision of Hua Hin as a city of art.

Tawee had his studio in Bangkok for 15 years, during this third period working with oil paints. While Tawee enjoyed the medium very much, his nose and sinuses were not in full agreement, with Tawee suffering from respiratory issues brought on by repeated daily exposure to turpentine, a volatile, pungent-smelling, and flammable solvent derived from pine tree resin, which is commonly used as a thinner for oil-based paints. It was on doctor’s advice that Tawee’s third period came to its end and he switched to what many acclaim as his master-period, where he paints with watercolours. Tawee sees no separation between his life and his art, nor between his work and his relaxation. He knows that whatever may befall him, art cannot be taken away from him, since he can, and will, find a way to create with whatever is to hand. Tawee spoke with admiration of the post WWII art movement of collage which arose as art supplies were limited across the world yet art still found a way to flourish.

Using watercolours was a new challenge for Tawee, as this medium is notoriously hard to control and so Tawee had to develop different skills and further increase the delicacy and precision of his strokes. Painting with watercolour is particularly challenging due to its fluidity, transparency and the need to control timing and wetness levels. Tawee has achieved recognition as a Master and is a past-President of the International Watercolor Society (IWS). Baan Silapin is the home of Tawee’s most acclaimed watercolour work, a very large (110 X 400 cm) study of water lillies titled Lotus Pond, which was completed over a period of 25 years. Of course, during this time Tawee painted many other artworks, yet it took 25 years for Tawee to achieve its final perfection. The majority of Tawee’s works, whatever the medium, belong in one of three categories: landscapes, floral studies or depictions of the female form.

Although Tawee has received many honours, awards and accolades, fame is something in which he has little interest. He would rather seek the profound spiritual cessation of ego, attachment and the false sense of “me” and “I”, to instead live a life completely free of cravings, in a way described in Buddhist teaching as “death before death”. Still, even though he doesn’t seek it, recognition of his central place in the Thai art community continues to come. In 2020, the Thai government awarded Tawee the title of Isan Heritage Artist, while most recently, in March 2026, Ubon University conferred the award of Capital Artist Diamond in Isan.

Click through the image carousel to see a selection of water colour paintings

A lesser-known side to Tawee’s art is his performance art, which brings him great pride as it is usually completed for charity. On many occasions now, Tawee has produced large artworks, in limited time periods such as 15 minutes to an hour, in public, one even broadcast to 20 million viewers on live television, his painting accompanied by a solo saxophonist! At times, Tawee has been surrounded by an audience as he paints. He has a very rare skill in being able to split his focus and talk with the audience without distracting himself from the creative task at hand. Tawee is proud of his ability to multitask, painting Muay Thai fighters and an international tennis champion as well as dignitaries such as Queen Sirikit. While in Poland in 2025, Tawee painted a very large piece at the annual International Watercolour Exhibition.

Tawee made an excellent choice when he decided to relocate from Bangkok to Hua Hin some 32 years ago now. It was the offer of an art collector friend’s teak house to use as a studio which was the initial attraction, with it being love at first sight for Tawee. The house soon became home and workplace for Tawee and his wife and son, prior to their move to Baan Silapin. Yet it is not the location which has kept Tawee in Hua Hin, but rather the diverse community, with wealthy Thais who have holiday homes locally and foreigners keen to appreciate and collect authentic Thai art. Tawee has no personal hero or role-model, being both self-reliant and introspective. He credits being able to make art to support his family and connect with people around the world as his greatest life achievement, intending to keep creating and open to whatever the future may have in store for him.

Although collectors rarely part with Tawee’s paintings, when they do, Christie’s auction house in Bangkok finds buyers willing to part with sums into the millions of baht. To his credit, Tawee is not aiming to amass a huge personal fortune. He is a happy man who loves to share with people. He has become an art collector himself, since during covid he purchased many artworks online from local artists struggling as the tourist market dried up. There are no signs on the walls of Baan Silapin to indicate which pieces are for sale, so anyone interested needs to speak to Tawee. He might just allow you to purchase something, as long as you can manage to convince him you truly love it.