Record your feelings about nature and people through painting

Artist Van Duong Thanh

From spring flowers by Hoan Kiem Lake, peach blossoms, apricot blossoms, peony, kumquat... spring paintings filled with love, abundant energy and creativity, artist Van Duong Thanh sends into his Giap Thin paintings full of spring scent and wishes for happiness to come to everyone who enjoys them!

During the last days of 2023 and the beginning of the new year of Giap Thin, Van Duong Thanh did not rest but focused all his energy on drawing pictures of flying dragons - dancing dragons with all his excitement to complete the pictures of the 12 zodiac animals. This is a custom of writing the first words of Spring - which Thanh learned from his teachers - when he was a child.

The lacquer paintings inlaid with eggs, gold, silver and mother-of-pearl show the majesty and wisdom of the sacred dragon. Sometimes on the background of white clouds and a red sun, sometimes on the background of a deep blue sky, sometimes the rhythm is very strong, sometimes very gentle like in a dance; with all the inspiration - Thanh has completed four paintings of flying dragons to welcome the new spring!

These paintings are not only presented to the public but also have the good fortune to be chosen by Vietnamese ambassadors to give to heads of state such as the Italian president and the Maltese president.

Works of Van Duong Thanh

Van Duong Thanh said that she received many thank you letters, certificates of merit, and commemorative medals from these leaders. The artist was very happy to see her dedicated paintings displayed in the offices of the leaders, introducing a part of her homeland's culture and paintings, serving as a bridge for friendship and understanding of Vietnam from international friends.

Sharing memories of the days and nights of tirelessly attaching eggs, pearls, gold and apricot blossoms to lacquer paintings weighing tens of kilograms, very hard work, requiring perseverance, but Van Duong Thanh tried to learn and continue the lacquer art of the Vietnamese countryside. And it was these paintings that brought much success and were interviewed, reported and widely broadcast by the press of many countries every time there was an exhibition of paintings there.

Despite a difficult childhood as a girl who lost her father at the age of nine and did not know family life, but only spent time in boarding schools, Van Duong Thanh's paintings do not contain haunting sadness or bitterness, but are full of love, love of life, love of people and faith in the future. It was painting and love for her parents that created the determination for Thanh to overcome 12 years of studying at the Vietnam University of Fine Arts and five years of internship abroad.

Spring outing by female artist Van Duong Thanh

After graduating from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Van Duong Thanh studied English for four years at the University of Foreign Languages. This was followed by four years of graduate study in Swedish, which enabled Thanh to stand on the podium at many universities and graduate schools to teach in foreign languages ​​there.

The Vietnam University of Fine Arts gave Thanh a rich capital to "bring the bell to strike the water of others". Those 12 years of study, with all subjects related to fine arts such as sculpture, ceramics, wood carving, silk, lacquer for stage decoration, book decoration, architectural design... created for Thanh a habit that to this day still enthusiastically tries his hand at stone statues, ceramic vases, and many other types of art.

The 12 years of studying the French Impressionist school of painting also left a very important mark on Thanh's work. Although Thanh spent many years in the abstract and figurative forms or cubism, the closest vibration to Thanh was impressionist painting. Some critics wrote that Van Duong Thanh's paintings were musical, melodious, and each composition followed a sinusoidal pattern that, after a long journey, would return to its starting point.

Thanh's paintings pay great attention to the subtle and smooth placement of color blocks. There are paintings that use bright colors that contrast strongly, and there are paintings that use soft tones that change layers, and brush strokes that gently cover each other; to express the moonlight on a woman or the stars on the trees. Sometimes the gray tones are light, but just needing to emphasize a little bit of warm color is enough to create a warm space. In painting or literature, Thanh does not intend to make viewers surprised and admire, but only intends to record his feelings before nature and people like a diary in a long journey and expressed in the most natural and sincere way.

Welcoming the new year 2024 with works from three years of thinking and creating, Van Duong Thanh will open his solo exhibition with 30 large-scale paintings at V - Art Space gallery, Ciputra club house Hanoi, a famous classical music and painting address in Hanoi in the near future./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/van-duong-thanh-ghi-lai-nhung-cam-xuc-cua-minh-truoc-thien-nhien-va-con-nguoi-qua-hoi-hoa-20240316143840248.htm