Phaptawan Suwannakudt's mural works concern Buddhist narrative such as Buddha's life and Jataka, Buddha's previous incarnation before his enlightenment. The figures and motifs in the narratives also reflect Thai lifestyle and social activities. "My work is a way of telling stories and interpreting things I have experienced through the skill I learned from my father. They are, most of the time, concerned with what I have made of myself, including my childhood memories, Buddhism, mythology, and Thai ways of life, beliefs, as well as my dreams which have occupied me since the very earlliest stages of my life."

During the past eight years, while living in Australia, Phaptawan's works have shifted in theme - relating more directly to herself and reflecting her life in Australia as seen in The Elephant and the Bush series.

The Elephant and the Bush series illustrates Phaptawan’s responses to a new cultural and environmental context, though simultaneously drawing from her mural temple training and its language. The series was influenced by the artist’s recent four week residency at the Bundanon Art Trust. Phaptawan speaks of an unfamiliarity with the Australian landscape but this series displays a familiarity and an ability to render the landscape’s individuality and its concurrent duality of openness and encasement. Closer observation reveals a fusion of her two environs, as behind the imposing tree trunks the background foliage and details follow traditional Thai mural techniques. Additionally, the presence of elephants in this series, as Phaptawan personally and culturally identifies with the elephant, displays her growing recognition of being part of her new environment. Phaptawan may interpret her new country primarily through Thai eyes but increasingly this vision is layered in the pluralities of home.

references: Christine Clark, 2003 <abstractions> exhibition pamphlet, Australian National University.