Lalita Rochanakorn

Lalita and her husband Kasidis, who has had a stellar career working within the UNHCR to improve the lives of displaced peoples worldwide, moved from Switzerland to Hua Hin in 2019. Though still maintaining two other homes in Thailand, the couple now recognise Hua Hin as their primary residence and certainly came to appreciate the local area during the Covid pandemic. One positive stemmed from the Covid isolation, and that was Lalita embracing and learning more about modern technology to keep in touch.  She was involved in video meetings with a group of international artists, using this as a way to increase her artistic involvement at a difficult time for the whole of humanity. Lalita is committed to remaining a lifelong learner, so I expect there will continue to be additions to her artistic repertoire.

Born in Bangkok, Lalita is the third out of 4 children, to a merchant family, whose company exported crop seeds to Japan and Italy amongst other countries, taking advantage of international sea trade routes.  Lalita recalls childhood visits to Hua Hin and has clearly retained fond memories of its quiet, peaceful mountain location, its good weather and delicious food, memories which may well have been a factor in her decision to return to this part of Thailand in her retirement years.

Having a one-quarter Chinese heritage, Lalita is proud of the industriousness of her ancestors and the sound financial status they built with their strong work ethic. Lalita’s father passed away when she was only 8 years old but she still had a strong role-model in her mother, who was a real estate developer at a time when this was not a common occupation for a woman.

One particular family decision was pivotal in setting Lalita on her life-path.  All the children in the family attended boarding school in foreign lands from the age of ten or twelve.  Her other siblings were sent to England for their schooling, but it was decided that Lalita would travel to and live in France. Lalita had developed a fondness for drawing from very first moment she was able to grasp a pencil, but the pursuit of art as a potential career was not well-regarded by her parents who believed that a life dedicated to art was a life of poverty. 

Lalita revelled in the plethora of experiences life at a boarding school in France afforded her and embraced the opportunity it gave her to experience new idea and her growing independence. She was exposed to art in a way that had not been available to her in Thailand.  At around 13 or 14 years of age, Lalita realised that she had artistic talent as well as aspirations. Since she was one of only two Thai students in the school, the two girls became fast friends, and they remain in contact to this day. Lalita recalls that despite being different from all the other students, she was treated with great kindness and compassion at the school.

After the completion of her secondary schooling, Lalita undertook her university education in French language, literature and culture at the Sorbonne in Paris and then returned to Thailand to begin a career in the French Embassy in Bangkok in 1977.  She began to study Thai oil painting under Master Uab Sanasen, who she credits with being the first person who believed in her as an artist.  Master Uab was also instrumental in introducing her to other influential Thai artists.  Lalita met Kasidis at a Khmer refugee camp in 1979 and they were married in 1982, to much fanfare. 

Although she is a very prolific artist and has lived much of her life outside Thailand, Lalita still displays some very traditional Thai attitudes, particularly when it comes to the primacy of the family.  She sees life as starting from the self, and moving to the home, the family, the village, a very “ripples in the pond” world view. Lalita, when asked about her personal strengths, initially telling me that her husband is her greatest strength.  When I asked for greater introspection, she was able to identify that her preparedness to take time with things, and her meticulous approach to her art were also great strengths.  As a Thai woman, a proud wife and mother-of-two, Lalita is certain her honour derives from her husband, and she cites the children as her proudest achievements. Being happy is seen by Lalita as a personal prerogative, since there is no real way to quantify what constitutes happiness. For each of us, it is a transitory emotion, and can be said to wax and wane, depending on many factors.

Other moments of considerable pride came when she has been contacted by people she hasn’t known personally, telling her how her painting or writing have inspired them or changed their view of the world. Kasidis is the natural writer of the couple, and indulged this passion by editing the student newspaper while still at university. With his encouragement and support, Lalita has now developed her expertise with the written word and has used it to great effect, starting with a book on botanical painting in Thai, “Ko Pieng Tae Hen”. She then used words, blending them skilfully with her images to publish a magnificent book, “Promenades en Terre Sainte”, a bilingual French/English book exploring 9 small villages near her home in the Swiss countryside, which she beautifully illustrated in watercolour and had published with the assistance of the local Commune. Lalita’s love of Switzerland runs so deep she became a dual Thai/Swiss national in 2009. She is very proud to have been the “country leader”, for 3 years, of the Swiss delegation of artists to the Fabiano Watercolour Festival held in Italy.

Lalita’s approach to her art is reflected in her life.  She is happy to live in the moment, and doesn’t make any distinction between working and relaxing, because to her they are one and the same thing.  Her daily schedule will normally include some time for her beloved golf, and generally two creative sessions of around an hour and a half each.  During these times, she applies herself totally to the task at hand, basically completely to the exclusion of all external factors, so that her work becomes almost like a meditation to her, and hence totally relaxing. 

A bucket list is not on Lalita’s agenda. She has travelled extensively, raised a happy family, lived a quiet rural lifestyle and at the same time socialised with international royalty and other dignitaries. Lalita has few wants and declares herself deeply contented with the life she currently lives.  She enjoys cheese in its myriad forms, particularly Swiss Gruyère, truffle Gouda and Brie, especially shared with friends over a few glasses of good red wine.  She eschews white sugar in her diet and concentrates on the bountiful fruits and vegetables available in this part of Thailand. Her guilty pleasure is dark chocolate with orange, a rare treat. But Lalita does have a couple of bugbears, the most significant being her strong dislike of burning which pollutes the air we all must breathe. (The other one is ironing, which we both avoid, if at all possible!)

Her botanical drawings have a special place in Lalita’s heart because they aim not just to capture the beauty of the flowers and plants she depicts, but rather attempt to record them for posterity.  Lalita has collaborated with other artists to produce a book in Japan recording many endangered orchid species, and has searched out specimens in need of her attention in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as well.  Arguably her most prestigious award was the silver medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in London in 1999 for her depiction of ivy leaves.  She was not at all perturbed at getting the silver, as the gold was taken by Pauline Dean, who she regarded as her mentor in botanical art.

One of the most intriguing characteristics of Khun Lalita is her humility.  She has led what many would consider a charmed life, in very distinguished social circles, (Lalita was even commissioned to paint portraits of the dogs in Sapathum Palace) and has a multitude of magnificent achievements, yet she is still on record calling herself “an amateur artist”. When I queried this, she told me that she has no art degree from a famous Thai university, nor does she make a living from her art, so does not see herself as a professional artist.  Semantics aside, I define her as an artist in the true sense of the word.