Rainy season caught on canvas
By Sunny Rose
HCM CITY — A series of 35 acrylic-on-canvas paintings, titled Hue’s Rainy Colours, is now on display in HCM City.The collection was created by Le Nhuong, Dang Mau Tuu and Phan Thanh Binh from the Hue Fine Arts College.
The rainy season prevents most outdoor activities and can cast a gloomy mood over Hue, but for the artists it also lends a pensive and graceful look to this formal royal city.
Just imagine what Hue would look like in a few months without continuous rain?
During the rainy season, the local authorities host various artistic events with the hope of attracting tourists, so that they can experience the unique character of the city in such weather.
Under the weather: Artists Dang Mau Tuu (left, back row), Phan Thanh Binh (left, front) and Le Nhuong (right, front).
The three artists whose works are exhibited in the show paint the rain with brilliant colours, saying that they prefer to use acrylic than oil because it dries easily in humid, rainy conditions.
The acrylic also shows off the beauty of Hue, sparkling with colour. Many of the paintings depict the Huong River and Ngu Mountain, two of the city’s major tourist destinations.
Although he is busy managing the Fine Arts College, artist Phan Thanh Binh still has spare time for painting. His works have a quiet but serious spirit.
Binh’s works, The Shadow of Time, contain blocks of pure colour and delicate geometric shapes.
“My works never lack hot colours, reds and yellows. So I don’t know why viewers often say they seem so cold and lonely. Maybe that’s what I am,” Binh said.
For painter Tuu, the chairman of the Hue Culture and Arts Union Association, the colours and strong brush strokes in his works depict simple subjects.
His paintings reveal poetic silhouettes and are full of emotion.
“I love everything, but evil,” he said, adding that the images seem to move and wheel in a fight that never ends.
For Nhuong, rain is not only colour. His series of paintings, called Convergence, recalled the sound of rain for some viewers, as if they were hearing echoes from the subconscious.
His philosophy of convergence, of the universe and human life, leaves a deep impression on visitors.
The exhibition runs until this Sunday at Phuong Mai Gallery, 129B Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, HCM City. — VNS
By Sunny Rose
From Viet Nam News
