A Day in the Life of a Professional Painter on Koh Phangan

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About Emma: Of the 18 years that Emma’s been an artist, she’s lived on Koh Phangan for 9 of them. When she’s not creating in her own Remedy Art Studio under her artist name Bryo, she’s probably either teaching (both art and general education), or playing with her boy Sebbie. (Who is a good friend of Hudson’s!)

6.30am - Wake up and coffee — my morning ritual. My son is at his dad’s so I stayed at my boyfriend Richie’s last night who is usually already up sipping coffee on the balcony. Fridays are my dedicated painting day in the studio. He’s a personal trainer so he’s off to meet a client at the gym and I follow suit not long after.

8.40am - Once I’m changed I drive to the gym. It’s a lovely sunny day which is a nice change from the rainy season and it instantly uplifts my mood. I have to slow down for a rooster crossing the road on the way. 

It’s upper body day today for my training which I love. I got into training about a year and a half ago and it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done for my mental and overall health. My gym friend Jackie tells me I looked like the comedy actress Leslie Mann today which puts a smile on my face.

I go to the biggest gym on the island, although not as fancy as the others, it has the most equipment and not so many influencers! The owner is Thai and I feel comfortable there. There’s no AC though, which is less than ideal at a gym in Thailand!

Suddenly, there’s a power cut. Luckily I’m nearly finished cause that place is gonna get stinky and sweaty today!

10am - After the gym I pop to the pharmacy to get some medicine for my boyfriend cause he’s feeling ill as many people are in this season. (Although for him it's weird as he’s quite healthy!)

I always go to the same pharmacy, First Pharma in town. The pharmacist is a sweet Thai woman who always gives me excellent advice with a smile. Everyone I recommend her to loves her. She's basically my doctor! The prices are also quite reasonable. (Many pharmacies on Koh Phangan mark their products up to obscene prices that people pay because they don’t have other options.)

The medicine she recommended has worked, too! Richie is starting to feel better. The pharmacist also has known my son since he was a baby, which is sweet. It creates a real sense of community when you get to know local shop owners over the years.

I drop it off and then find myself frustrated on the way back since I get stuck behind a big, slow truck — Phangan’s narrow roads make it difficult to overtake, and I’m running later than I’d like already today.

I get home to shower and remember there's no electricity but luckily the water is working so I have a cold shower… at least it's sunny today! This one is a scheduled power cut — there have been a lot of blackouts on the island as the population is growing beyond what our power grid can handle.

Then I get dressed, put some makeup on, take my lion’s mane and finally, I'm ready to get painting.

11am - I’m in the studio ready to paint. For as long as I can remember — even when I I used to paint in my dad’s shed —  I've always had a space where I paint or do artwork. 

I used to paint on my balcony but when the house behind mine became available I jumped on it, and Remedy Art Studio was born. Before I moved to Koh Phangan, I had a serious drug addiction but art was always the one thing that kept me going. It's always been my ‘higher purpose’ (which I also considered for a studio name but it wasn’t as catchy as Remedy). So when a friend suggested Remedy, it just seemed like the perfect fit. 

I love working in the front patio area since I love to work outside, amongst the trees with a light breeze. Living on a tropical island, I don't want to be in just a room with a roof and walls when I work, so for me it is absolutely ideal and beautiful. The only annoying thing is at mosquito time (usually between 7 - 8 am and 5:30 - 6:30 pm), things can get a bit itchy but I have a fan and mozzie spray and incense coils which help a lot. Besides, having lived here as long as I have, the mosquitoes seem rather bored of me, so they tend to leave me alone. 

The studio has now turned into my business… a dream come true for me. I never quite knew how to make it work as a full-time artist on the island. But now that I have my own studio, I can give classes and workshops and I have a separate space to work. It's so important to have a separate space outside of home because otherwise I'm always distracted by whatever art project I’m working on that’s just staring me in the face, not to mention that it takes up a lot of room and my four-year-old needs room to be rambunctious. 

Currently, I’m working on a portrait commission for someone who lives on the island, who commissioned it after seeing another one of my pieces. I’ve set today as my deadline for getting it done and it’s nearly there. It’s gonna be tight because I only have til 3pm when I need to put my paint brush down to pick up my boy Seb from school.

I crank up the music, which I always put on as soon as I arrive for a day of painting. Hey — who needs to go out to party when I can have a party in my studio on a regular basis! 

Melodic techno or Indie music serenade me as my brain ticks away doing ‘artist maths’ — working out which colours to mix in to create the perfect blend. Skin tones are surprisingly complex, full of colours you wouldn’t imagine should be there. I never use skin tone or any colour straight from the tube. 

I'm really in my element, I'm in the zone in my own little world when I'm painting. Just me, the painting and some music… it's heaven.

2.30pm - I have to stop working because it’s time to get ready to get Sebbie from school. Me and his dad who aren’t together anymore do alternate weekends as well as sharing days in the week. This weekend, Seb’s with me.

Co-parenting in itself is tricky because when you break up with someone usually you can say goodbye and have some space from that person, but when you have a child and you break up and you decide to co-parent you still have to deal with that person and come to compromises. 

We have no examples of co-parents that we know so we do it as we feel is right and we've come up with a schedule and method that works for us. It's a big challenge being away from family members because we could have a lot more support with childcare, etc. I do often miss alll the cousin love we're missing out on… but I think that affects all parents living abroad away from their home countries. But I feel the challenges are worthwhile when I see my son frolicking on the beach and getting to enjoy his childhood on his own terms. 

3pm - I pull into the school right on time. Sebbie started going to Arki when I started teaching there occasionally during Covid. They take a somewhat alternative approach to education. The school is nestled into the Phangan jungle, dotted with shalas used as classrooms. 

The owner of the school is a very good friend of mine who puts her whole heart into everything she does there. In September he will join the island's official international school here on the island. I'll be sad when he leaves Arki but also excited for him to begin a new chapter.

3.30pm - Back at the studio, I’ve got a private art class to teach. I let Sebbie have some cartoon time as he’s been at school all day and then I can give my attention to my student. He’s not usually with me when I teach but it’s fine when he is as my students all love him.

Usually on a Friday we might meet some friends and go down to a local spot like Tiki beach resort and just hang out, have some food and play. We usually pick somewhere easy and stress-free as the kids tend to be tired on a Friday. This Friday Sebbie is more tired than usual because he'd spent a couple of days in Koh Samui with his dad, so decide just to have a nice easy afternoon and evening at home.

Time for some food shopping — Sebbie likes going inside the trolleys and sometimes I feel like even a trip to the supermarket counts as an activity on those days when we’re both tired and don’t want to do something exciting. 

I pick up my laundry. Lately I’ve been taking my washing to a nearby laundry service where they wash, dry and fold your laundry for you. It’s a popular service amongst tourists on our little island. It costs me 500 THB a week (about $16 USD), but currently time is my most precious currency so it’s worth it. 

I also recently took on a cleaner for my house and the studio  — it's been a godsend and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner! Cleaners are really affordable on Koh Phangan… I pay 500 baht a week for the house and the studio. And it’s basically given me a whole day back which I can use to paint.

I’m always very proud of how much I can get on my bike; me, my child, food shopping and laundry. We also drop off some more medicine to my boyfriend who had slowly felt more ill throughout the day and then we drive home and enjoy the nice sunset from the bike. 

Back at the house, I make some pesto pasta and we have a really nice cozy evening watching a Christmas film on the sofa.

7.30/8pm - Brush teeth, book and sleep for Sebbie. I stay up for an hour, watch an episode of something. At the moment I’m watching the TV version of Shantaram, then I go to bed and read my Kindle for an hour until I’m asleep.