Face Stories | The Inspiration

Everyone has a story to tell. I want to tell stories of ASEAN culture, as well as my life, my perspective and my family through the portrait of human faces. This is my inspiration for "Face Stories".

The faces I paint are based on a real person or from my own imagination. Stories about our cultural backgrounds, history, current events and imaginative components like cartoons characters or literature are painted into the faces as well.

"I chose to paint young faces which represent the growth of the current generation. This generation will move us forward and become our next frontier in telling our stories." - Pramual

In some paintings, when you look closely, you will see crackling textures all over the canvas. I have deliberately created the peel-away effect on these young people's faces to represent time and changes. They cannot stay young forever and things they may have to go through will not always be pleasant.

My daughter is also my inspiration. In the painting called "Bun" I have given her a Chinese inspired hairdo. In "The Girl", I painted the details of her favorite characters from the French novel The Little Prince among other inspirations to capture the milestones of her life. I have also added other ASEAN-inspired textures such as Porcelain in the painting as well. 

Jataka, or the reincarnations of Buddha's previous lives, is also a big part of my story telling as a Buddhist. These stories represent all our lives - the curiosity and evolution as a child grows up.

View the entire Collection of Face Stories by Pramual (Click Here)