Le Dan - the person who uses words to draw pictures

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Le Dan (70 years old) has painted hundreds of paintings on various themes: portraits, landscapes, 12 zodiac animals... on many different materials. Notably, he uses letters in song titles, character names and lunar year names to create shapes and poses for each work.

Mr. Dan painted a portrait for the author made of letters - Photo: TRAN TUYEN

Drawing letters on stone

In a house filled with the babbling sounds of children in Quarter 5, Ward 1, Dong Ha City, Mr. Dan displays many paintings on stone, wood and paper over the past 20 years. Although he has given away many of them, he still keeps some as souvenirs. After introducing the circumstances of each painting, he told me about his fate in drawing with words.

Before liberation, Mr. Dan studied at the Vietnamese - Chinese Faculty of the Hue University of Literature (formerly). Due to the circumstances at that time, the school was dissolved after a while, so he left his studies unfinished. After 1975, he worked as a bicycle repairman to make a living and take care of his elderly mother in Dong Ha City. By 2000, his health had declined, so he gave up the bicycle repair job. Having a good understanding of Buddhism, he wrote articles for Giac Ngo Newspaper, Buddhist Culture Magazine and a number of other newspapers and magazines. “During my time working with Giac Ngo Newspaper, I had the opportunity to see a calligraphy painting by artist Chinh Van. Also during this time, artist Le Vu in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province was famous for many works of portraits of historical figures and world cultural celebrities in words in Khanh Hoa Newspaper. From there, I had the idea of ​​using words to draw pictures,” Mr. Dan said.

Mr. Dan draws a portrait of an acquaintance using that person's full name - Photo: TRAN TUYEN

In 2002, he began to research and explore painting with words on stones. His first painting was a portrait of a young woman from the letters in the song title “Diem Xua” on pebbles. From then on, he searched for pebbles with beautiful shapes and then went home to diligently draw letters and create shapes for the paintings. He mainly used the names of immortal songs by the talented musician Trinh Cong Son to paint portraits of beautiful young women or paintings of his mother. “The painting that I am most satisfied with is a portrait of Bodhidharma using letters from the song title “A Realm to Return to”.

“I gave this painting to a monk in the province,” Mr. Dan shared. After only a short time of coming to this art form, he has painted nearly 100 works on stone. Mr. Dan does not focus on money but believes in fate, so he is happy to give away any painting that he likes, along with instructions to keep it carefully, because it is his passion.

Draw a portrait using the character's name

The day I visited, Mr. Dan was diligently drawing a portrait of an acquaintance using that person’s full name. On a white background, he carefully used a black ink pen to create soft, graceful lines. It took a very sharp eye to recognize the letters hidden in each stroke, assembling the complete picture. Each letter, each stroke contributed to the overall picture.

Then, Mr. Dan stopped and told me: “After a while, I became “familiar” with stone, so I switched to painting on wood and paper. However, stone and wood are not always available, it takes a lot of time to search and choose, so I gradually switched to painting on paper. Besides painting “self-portraits” of young girls, mothers, and Bodhidharma using the names of Trinh Cong Son’s songs, in 2011 I switched to painting the 12 zodiac animals, landscapes, and portraits.”

For the 12 zodiac animal paintings, Mr. Dan uses the letters of the lunar year to "paint" the shape of the animal of that year. For example, in the year of Binh Than, he painted the letters "Binh" and "Than" to form a monkey. In the year of Quy Mao, he painted the letters "Quy" and "Mao" to form a cat...

For landscape paintings, he also uses the letters in song titles to create lotus flowers or still life scenes. For portraits, he paints friends, relatives or anyone who requests him to paint them using their full names.

For Mr. Dan, each painting is a relationship - Photo: TRAN TUYEN

“To draw a beautiful picture requires a certain talent. Drawing a picture with words is even more difficult because you have to sketch out the idea for the picture and combine the words in a harmonious and reasonable way. So what is the most important step in the art of using words to draw a picture, sir?”, I wondered.

Mr. Dan slowly replied: “Before drawing a subject or a portrait of someone, I have to spend time imagining and thinking about how to arrange the letters in a harmonious and reasonable way, not lacking but not having too many strokes, the letters must be seamless with each other. The painting must exude the character’s spirit. After I have finished imagining it in my head, I put the pen to paper.”

Recently, as social networks have developed, some people have come to know about Mr. Dan’s paintings and have contacted him to draw portraits. Not long ago, a woman in Ho Chi Minh City received a painting from him and was very excited to see her portrait painted with letters.

After that, this person proactively offered him a few million dong even though he did not set a price. For him, it was a fate. However, deep down, Mr. Dan still felt a bit regretful because although it had been around for more than 20 years, the art of painting with words was still little known. What he wished for was that one day, the art of painting with words would develop and be understood by many people.

Tran Tuyen

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa-the-thao/le-dan-nguoi-dung-chu-ve-tranh/182455.htm