“Repro Madness” or “Carving a Niche for Thai Art” by Scott Murray

It has been said that every Thai artist under the age of 55 has passed through her hands. But Sumpoaw Sarekul Conner became the "godmother of Thai art" through happenstance.

In 1987, she married a Thai artist named Adisak Sarekul. The couple started an artist's studio in south Pattaya, but soon afterwards Adisak and three of his fellow artists were killed in a traffic accident. Sumpoaw, however, felt an affinity for the artists she'd come to know, and was determined to go ahead with the studio. She was not an experienced businesswoman, but a visiting Scot named Paul Conner happened upon her store, bought some canvasses and took them back to the UK. His London friends were very impressed, and, when he made return visits, soon started placing orders with him. He soon realized that this was an untapped market, and that Sumpoaw's reproductions could fetch top dollar in the European market and elsewhere.

He arranged to see Sumpoaw, offering to help her market her products. His experience as an international marketing executive with several big software houses gave him the necessary background in sales and marketing, and, before long, a partnership between East and West was born. In the course of their collaboration, Paul and Sumpoaw eventually fell in love, and their partnership took on a new dimension.

Still living in London at this time, but commuting with his home and Thailand up to five times a year, Paul realized, among other things, that his phone bills were becoming higher than his plane fares. He knew something had to give. In 1995, he decided to leave his high-paying job with a software firm in London and throw in his lot with Sumpoaw. In August of that year, the couple then decided to move their studio to the island of Koh Samui.

The relocation proved a great success. But they found that a good business idea is soon copied. Before they knew it, word had spread that Koh Samui was a great place to buy inexpensive yet high-quality art, and other artists, many of whom had been trained by Sumpoaw, started to arrive on the island and set up businesses for themselves. In the face of such fierce competition, the two art lovers decided it was time to look for a new location. Coincidentally, this was at about the same time one of their first really big customers, a Belgian art dealer, summoned them to a meeting on Phuket. Patong Beach seemed a perfect location to open another branch of the Artist's Studio, so within a year of moving to Samui they were off again.

Today, several reincarnations on, the combination of Sumpoaw's ability to handle the temperament of Thai artists and Paul's savvy marketing ability has them playing host to what is probably the world's largest stock of original and reproduction art on canvas.

The people working at the Artist's Studio are not paint-by-number specialists. They are highly qualified artists in their own right, commanding high salaries and, it is to be hoped, says Conner, leading a good life. Paul bristles at any hint of a sweatshop, pointing out that one of their artists, Pan, can fetch up to 150,000 baht (USD4200) a month for his work. He's a Renoir and Buddhist image specialist. Rookie artists start out at 20,000 baht plus free room and board, and can soon start making much more money than that. In fact, Paul jokes that they've become used to a middle-class Western lifestyle. Hardly the classic starving artists. Under Paul and Sumpoaw's direction, they work in rows in eight-hour shifts using English oil paints and Italian canvases, the only artistic medium the gallery uses.

The couple occasionally catch flak for their work. Some European reproduction studios, fearing the loss of their niche market, have in the past waxed furious that the gallery sells such high-quality reproductions at such reasonable prices. But their broad-based client list, which includes other galleries around the world, shows clearly though that their work is much appreciated. And even though the gallery is surrounded by hawkers selling copies of brand names from Gucci to Ray Ban, Cartier and Rolex, Paul takes umbrage at the term "fake", when used to describe the studio's work. "Call them renditions or reproductions," he says, "but we never pretend to sell a real Van Gogh or Gauguin. Everyone knows what they're getting; we never misrepresent ourselves."  The couple has also dabbled in furniture reproduction, reproducing classic pieces from such luminaries as Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Ren้e MacIntosh. If they like you, they will still take special orders for these works, which they see as a labor of love rather than a business commitment.

The majority of their clients are walk-ins from Patong's Beach Road. Many just pop in to see the artists at work, and when they realize how affordable the paintings are — they usually run between 4,000 and 40,000 baht — they end up commissioning a portrait or painting themselves. One US Navy captain asked for a portrait of his ship. Swedes, on the other hand, tend to ask for reproductions of their homes and boats; Italians, their cars and kids. Finns have a hankering to see renditions of their float planes.

The Artist Studio Gallery keeps about 3,000 paintings in stock, including a wide selection of original Thai art. The bottom line? This is a place where, under the supervision of European management, professional Thai artists work to European gallery standards. Sumpoaw and Paul want to raise the bar when it comes to Thai artists; they want them to gain more international recognition, and to take pride in their work. A testament to their devotion is that almost every artist starting a studio in Thailand, particularly in the southern part of the country, has passed through their hands.

Paul himself has been dubbed the "Mr Big of the art world copyists", and, whether he wants to acknowledge or not, he's surrounded himself with copies of the greats — Turner, Dali, Picasso, Botticelli, Botero, Chagall, Braque, Monet, Hopper, Kandinsky, Warhol (canvas, not silkscreen), Lichtenstein and de Lempicka — a veritable cornucopia of art through the ages. These days, they also hang a significant number of original Thai art works by their own staff.

The gallery has been featured in the International Herald Tribune, the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt and the New York Herald. Clients have included Donald Trump, snooker star Ken Doherty, German soccer coach Rudy Voller, and the Pantheon Gallery in Belgium has previously commissioned a number of original pieces, which were very well received in Belgian art circles. A visit to the gallery is well rewarded. You can appreciate fine reproductions of some of the world's great artworks, while watching talented young artists at work.

Article by Scott Murray of http://www.scottmurray.com/