Sarah Sutro brings the natural beauty of the Thai countryside to life in her latest exhibition, Palms and Landscape. See +art page 34.

What inspired Palms and Landscape?

I love tropical landscapes and chose my apartment because I can see the tops of palm trees from my windows.

What is the highlight of the exhibition?

The painting “Palm, Four Windows.” The painting is in four parts, and it took me five months to paint. It feels like a symphony to me, with each panel containing a different kind of movement. I had to draw and paint over and over to find the marks and lines that really describe each kind of palm.

Tell us about the medium you used for this exhibition.

All the paintings are either watercolor on paper or acrylic on canvas. Watercolor is perfect for catching the transparency of water and the changing colors in the sky. It is also a very spontaneous medium, the paper is constantly drying out and too many layers of color make the surface dull.

If you were to paint Bangkok, how would you?

I would paint a mass of lines and shadows and directions, interspersed with occasional islands of quiet that represent a temple or a park.