A day in the life of artists http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011032347536/LIFT/a-day-in-the-life-of-artists.html

I spent a day with NIGHT MARKET painter May Sak
I spent one and a half hours chatting with a young painter at the Night Market near the riverside. Dressed in jeans and a long- sleeved-shirt, this young painter May Sak, whom I have known since I joined in the Cannon party at the Korean Center, is a senior student at the Royal University of Fine Arts, and painting is his major.

I met Sak around 5:45pm. He was waiting for me because we had made an appointment for 5:30pm. When I showed up at his booth, it seemed quiet as it was early in the evening, so people had not come out yet.
Sak has to spend his nights painting for people who go to buy something at the Night Market. Every Friday to Sunday evening he must come to his booth to prepare his paintings and other items.

After Sak had prepared all his stuff, he told me: “Besides me, we have others painters, maybe three booths in the row, but they do not study with me at all, we just know them and we work on paintings here.”

His job is not easy – he had to wait for someone to come to his booth so he can draw them, but I was there for almost one hour and no one showed up.

He seemed a little bit sad, but he still cracked some jokes to encourage me to stay longer. “As a painter, I am not like a photographer since a painter can paint whatever and whenever they want, not only in the middle of the day, but also in the middle of the night.”

The sky was getting darker and darker, but I still did not see any customers come to his booth. Some people just walked over and looked at us, but then kept going. What about the other painters nearby us? They were also looking forward to making some paintings, like Sak.

Due to a lack of customers, professional painter Sak recalled that on Friday he did not have many customers. He said he only gets about three customers each day. However, he has had good days when he gets up to seven customers.

I asked him how he draws pictures and if he uses pencils and water colours. He told me that painting with water colours seems quite easy because there was no need to leave spaces. With black and white drawings using pencils, he must leave some spaces to make the pictures more visible.

While we talked his phone kept ringing, but he never took the calls. Perhaps he did not want to be rude to me. Sak said his paintings can feed him and sometimes he can save US$200 per month, but now he has to feed his two younger brothers. He cannot save a thing, but he has enough, he said.

Although I did not see any of his drawings, I still learned a bit about how to paint pictures. I think I will go back to the Night Market again to see him painting.