Chahn Sutarapong graduated from Chung Ling high school in Penang Malaysia, while studying art under two Malaysian artists; one of whom is Chua Thien Teng, a well-known batik painter and one of Malaysia’s foremost contemporary art gurus. He also took correspondence courses offered by the Washington School of Art and the British Institute of Careers. Chahn began his career as an artist by working with advertising agencies as visualiser/illustrator prior to joining the Bangkok Post’s creative department in 1974.
After over twenty years of service, he left the Post in 1995 to pursue his painting fulltime. He also used to teach art at a Japanese Painting Class at the Japanese Association for quite some years. Occasionally, Chahn works on portrait and nude, but most of the time is reserved for his more laborious landscape painting. He paints quickly, on the spot, which gives his landscapes a freshness and vibrancy, catching the mood of the moment. He paints “anything which impresses him” but it is light and shade that you see when you gaze at his timeless scenes of moored barges and Chao Praya river life.