Christopher Hogan Artist

Happy to say that I am at the Laguna Beach Resort  this week. Great set-up with lots of families and Lucky, the baby elephant comes to join my class after her breakfast. There all this week.

Colour Your World

with Exclusive Art Classes

Young and old are invited to sign up for art classes with international acclaimed artist, designer and visual communicator, Christopher Hogan. Find the Artist within and create your own inspirational art work on canvas to take home.

Mon – Sat @ Laguna Phuket

Morning Class: 10am – 12pm
• Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket 18-23 July
• Laguna Beach Resort 25-30 July
• Laguna Holiday Club Resort 1-6 August
• Outrigger Laguna Phuket 8-13 August
• Best Western Allamanda 15-20 August
• Banyan Tree Phuket 22-27 August

Acclaimed Aussie Artist Christopher Hogan at Laguna Phuket Summer Family Festival

Internationally renowned Australian artist Christopher Hogan will again be Artist-in-Residence at this year’s Laguna Phuket Summer Family Festival with a programme of daily art classes and tutorials.

Christopher, a specialist in marine-themed abstract paintings, will hold morning and afternoon art classes for children and adults from 18 July until 27 August at the Festival site in Canal Village Shopping Centre, and is scheduled to hold tutorials around the resort’s luxury hotel properties.

He’ll also exhibit his acclaimed abstract paintings, inspired by fish skin patterns and underwater scenes gleaned from scuba diving experiences on the Great Barrier Reef near his home on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Christopher’s appearance at this year’s Laguna Phuket Summer Family Festival follows the success of his 2010 debut as Festival Artist-in-Residence.

The Howland family, who took one of his Festival classes, wrote of their experience: “The couple of hours we spent painting with you were a genuine highlight of our holiday. We were all really pleased with how well our pictures turned out under your expert tuition.

“More importantly, it was wonderful to do something calm, reflective and creative together as a family – we will treasure our novice art works as a unique reminder of our fabulous holiday.”

As well as holding his popular classes for hotel guests and local residents last year, Christopher also launched a creative art course for teachers and pupils of a Phang Nga provincial school supported by Laguna Phuket’s Developing Sustainable Schools programme – and helped raise THB100, 000 (US$3,300) for the school with a charity “Art Party” and raffle of paintings.

“Last year at Laguna Phuket was an amazing experience and I’m really excited about being there again for another Summer Family Festival to add to the appeal of the overall event,” said Christopher. I hope to repeat the success of my classes and develop my relationship with hotel guests and the local community.”

Christopher’s Summer Family Festival art classes, held Monday-Saturday 10.00-12.00pm and 2.30-4.30pm, cost THB 2,000 nett for adults and THB 1,000 nett for children (4-14 years). Private lessons are available by appointment.

The Laguna Phuket Summer Family Festival runs from 25 June until 31October with benefits that include free dining for kids aged 12 and under at all seven Laguna Phuket hotels; free kids golf when playing with a full-paying adult; free speedboat tours for kids to Naka and Khai islands; daily Kidz Fun Zone activities (until 22 August) with the first session free; free evening Kidz Lounges at all hotels, open 6-10pm; free tennis for in-house guests; and free extra bed for kids aged 12 and under.

Anantara Hua Hin Resort & Spa in collaboration with Siam Winery and internationally renowned artist Christopher Hogan have launched three limited edition Monsoon Valley Wines inspired by the lush tropical gardens of the popular resort and Thailand’s stunning marine life. The collaboration between resort, art and wine is the first of its kind in Thailand.

The concept of the limited edition wine series came when artist Christopher Hogan and Anantara Hua Hin’s General Manager, Tim Boda were sampling a locally made wine for the first time.

“As our philosophy at Anantara is to emerse our guests into the local culture, we invited Siam Winery, the makers of Monsoon Valley Wine, to have a wine tasting night in the gardens of the resort. The evening was such as success with the guests fully endorsing the wine, the surroundings and our resident artist , we jokingly said it would be great to bottle the feeling of the whole evening – and here we are one year later launching three limited edition wines inspired from that very first evening,” Mr Boda explains.

The labels of the wines have been designed by Australian artist Christopher Hogan who inspiration comes from Thailand’s marine life and the resort’s renowned tropical gardens. The 14 acres of luxuriantly were the creation of Bangkok-based landscape designer Bill Bensley who describes the results as “biologically interesting by making five distinct sub-gardens; the white garden, the heliconia garden, the red garden, the palm garden (featuring no less than sixty species) and the yellow garden.”

The grapes of the three limited edition art series wines including a White Shiraz, a Colombard and a Red Shiraz are grown at the nearby Hua Hin Hills Vineyard and vinified at Siam Winery. Each wine has been made to perfectly compliment Thailand’s climate and cuisine. The years on the labels are also dated as Buddist Era 2553, which is also a first for Thai wines.

“Hua Hin has transformed itself over the last few years from a sleepy seaside town into Thailand’s hub of art and culture. This new series of art wines is a testiment of Anantara supporting local products and emersing ourselves and growing with the area and sharing this experience with our guests,” Mr. Boda concluded.

Clients of the prestigious, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts’, Angsana Velavaru Resort & Spa, Maldives can vouch for Christopher’s Hogan’s penchant for colour. The villas, bar and foyer areas are brought to magnificent life thanks to over 80 brightly painted, Hogan triptych prints on canvas gracing the walls of the luxuriously appointed villas at the award-winning boutique resort and spa.

And it’s no surprise then that the Australian-born artist and sculptor, who established Hogan Art (www.hoganart.com) in 2002 believes ‘’art should be fun.’’ But with his disarmingly Aussie accent, Hogan is the first to tell me that there’s more to colour than meets the eye, if you only know how to look for it.

“I’m always affected by colour and form and how it’s used,” said Hogan on a recent trip to Dubai where he is pursuing regional business opportunities.

“A lot of people are non committal or apprehensive about colour but [in Australia,] we grow up with colour.”

And the colour that Hogan grew up with in Cairns in the north east of Australia is about as bright and beautiful as it gets. The world’s largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef, was Hogan’s playground growing up and its creatures, colours and shapes remain his strongest inspiration. Sea life, which Hogan typically depicts in bright, abstract forms, feature prominently in the majority of his work and were well received at Cityscape where Hogan Art first introduced their unique Art Based Interiors, in January this year.

“So many people who stopped at our stand responded to the work I’d hung by saying, ‘wow, this is amazing!…….I feel like I’m on holiday!’”

And while Hogan agrees that’s a very encouraging response, his own purpose for visiting the region is to spend time here feeling very differently.

A collaborative effort, Hogan Art includes team members with extensive project management experience managing projects as big as Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Commonwealth Games Village, universities and 18-hole golf courses.

So while Hogan works closely with interior designers and home owners to develop art they will love, Hogan Art exploits that love a little further. Working with creative teams to develop themes that can be applied throughout an entire commercial or residential space; from canvas, to carpet, cushion or upholstery – staff uniforms, menus or stationery – Hogan’s creativity, combined with his team’s business savvy and large scale project management expertise – ensure “all the elements talk to each other” when a project is complete.

And this is where Hogan says his artistic offering differs from that of many other artists working in the field.
“I was pushing paint around and involved in design from a very early age,” Hogan says.

But whereas Hogan believes artists can typically be very precious about their work and designs, he is willing to be flexible about changing colours and working around different themes and towards various client briefs, guaranteeing projects of different types and sizes are completed to the creative and commercial satisfaction of everyone involved.

Hogan agrees there’s a fine line between remaining true to his creative style, fulfilling a client’s vision and maintaining a project’s integrity to ensure it stands out. And even though the artist’s internationally commissioned urban sculptures and limited edition prints created for government, corporate and private clients prove he can more than make it in the traditional art environment, he and his team are ready to break with convention.

“I want to take my art off the gallery walls and take it to the people,” Hogan says passionately. “So they not only look at it, they can lie on it too.”

If the team at Hogan Art has their way, people will be lying, sitting, walking on it – and even wearing it – too. Watch this space.