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*A senior artist and native of Thonburi, Sawasdi was born in 1925. He received a diploma from the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture,Silpakorn University, in 1945, and another diploma in painting from the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome in 1960. A year before he retired as the director of Chang Silp College he received an honorary D.F.A. (Painting) from Silpakorn University.
Since the first National Art Exhibition in 1949,Sawasdi has continued ot participate in artistic activities.He has won many prizes including two silver and two gold medals in the 2nd,3rd,4th,and5th National Art Exhibitions and was honored as one of the nation's distinguished artists in the category of painting in 1955. While in Italy, he won two first prizes in art contests in Rome and Ravenna. Returning to Thailand in 1961, he submitted entries in a water colour competition and took the first prize. He has since become a respected judge in local contests and exhibitions and has very little timefor his own creatove work. However, he has won two more international prizes. With so many accomplishments, Sawasdi was promoted in 1991 to the status of national artist in the category of visual art (painting).
Sawasdi's distinctive mark can be seen clearly in his mastery of the techniques, styles and colors he uses to reflect the beauty of nature, which is the main source of his inspiration.
His early landscapes were done en plein air,He collected first hand impressions of natural light and colour but his works turn away from that joyful impressionist atmosphere of lively color, as in Rainy Season (1951) for example. The stay in Italy brought Sawasdi into immediate contact with modern European art. After returning from there, his style transformed into something more cubist, with reduced details. Only geometrical structures are presented with vivid colors , for example in Flowers (1963). As visual elements decreased, the images appeared more abstract, as can be seen in his Flying Birds and Space series (1965) . Sawasdi later turned to realism in oil paintings, drawings and watercolors before returning to an abstract style.
Sawasdi's paintings shown in this exhibition are works of his City Lights series (1992). Morning, for example, uses a splashly water color technique over geometric structure to create free forms and a lively, joyful atmosphere. Tempest, one of his oil paintings, is a spontaneous record of an experience of a natural phenomenon. The artist has captured the power of the wind in a few vigorous brushstrokes.
* Copy from " PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES ON THE OCCASION OF THE BANK OF THAILAND'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY " on page 162-164
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