Italthai Portrait Prize – People’s Choice Prize

We are proud to announce our heartfelt congratulations to Natth Khadwinya, the winner of this year’s “People’s Choice Prize” from the nationally renowned Italthai Portrait Prize 2023 competition. Along with a prize reward worth 100,000 THB with the artwork titled “My Venus” that has captivated and impressed us all.

“I created a realistic style of painting with coloured pencil technique. I always paint portraits of people with outstanding personalities. I like studying Greek and Roman gods with beautiful bodies and I am interested in the stories of “Venus”, the god of love and beauty. I used to create works that portray Venus without being dependent on any gender, expressing only the beauty according to my judgement. At that time, I started searching for a person with my concept and perspective of beauty. Seeing a photo of “Liam” with a face and body fitted to what I had imagined, I reached out and asked Liam to be my sitter and portrayed Venus. He can portray my version of Venus very well and he was always happy and glad to be involved in the work. At the end of this project, we have become friends. I had never submitted my work to any competition before because I thought portraits were not suitable for a competition. But this time, it is the Portrait competition. So I wanted to compete and to paint my first sitter who was not from a photograph to convey the beauty of Venus one more time. But the rules added to the challenge. Liam had to repeat the same pose for me time and time again. It was very difficult for us with the coloured pencil technique that we couldn’t do as fast as we wanted. Although the outcome of this entry is unknown, every time I meet with Liam our friendship becomes stronger. It is as if “This time I indeed have Venus as a friend in real life and it’s truly beautiful.”

Finally, River City Bangkok would like to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated and submitted their artworks for this competition. Our utmost appreciation extends to the organizers, committee members, and all the viewers who have contributed to the success of this event. Our portrait competition will be open for submissions once again next year in 2024. Stay tuned for further details and updates regarding all our amazing winners and competition guidelines on our website www.portraitprizethailand.com and through the vibrant social media channels of River City Bangkok.