Bangchhu from Rugubchi

Here are our beautiful Bhutanese things painted in hyperrealist style. Not many people are able to see beautiful baskets, jewelry, swords, and pots from Bhutan. And some we can't even make anymore. Beautiful things from Bhutan painted in the hyperrealist style of painting are the two parts of my life, old east and new west, together in one picture.

This piece is big, 40 x 30," painted with natural pigment and some acrylic paint. It's on canvas. In Trongsa we make things from bamboo. Some people even make their houses from bamboo mats. Maybe I will paint that.

Judy's Dopchu

When I came to the U.S. for the first time in 2000, my wife showed me some art of her friend John Baeder, who paints in photorealist style. He paints pictures of diners and he is a great painter and a good man. His trees and his skies are amazing. Later I was able to study from a collection of paintings by Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, and Alan Magee and many other great photorealist and hyperrealist painters. They paint things that interest them, or what they want to remember. They were very famous in the 1980s and 1990s all over the world. Louis K. Meisel made the name "photorealism." In Bhutan we only have one style of painting and we don't really study art of the world. After I saw the photorealist art I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted to try to paint like that, even when painting my thankas. My wife always told me, "Try. I think you can do it." She's right. This is the first hyperrealist painting. It is 24 x 28," pigment and water on canvas. The bracelet (dopchu) comes from Lunana in Eastern Bhutan in the 18th century.

Vermont Studio Center

I'm at the Vermont Studio Center and it is great. I am meeting other artists and seeing their work. Everyone here is very nice and the work they make is beautiful. Everyone works hard. This is our chance to make great art.

I am very grateful to the Rubin Foundation, Shelley and Donald Rubin, and Rachel Weingeist for giving me a fellowship to come here.