Life in Sa Pa is on display on do (poonah) paper and oil paintings at veteran painter Dang Tin Tuong’s exhibition of new artworks at the Exhibtion House in Ha Noi.

Mua Xuan Sa Pa (Sa Pa in Spring), one of dozens of paintings of the Sa Pa landscape by Dang Tin Tuong, is on display at the Exhibition House in the capital.

Various paintings on landscapes and life in Sa Pa Town are on display. Using his brush skilfully, Tuong has painted festivals, girls’ portraits, mountains, valleys and endless forests.

Nguyen Truong Lich, a teacher who visited Tuong’s exhibition in 2005, finds that the fine arts style of the painter has changed over time.

“The painter makes me amazed as he did before,” Lich says. “Contemplating these paintings brings me on a trip where the nature is portrayed in a lively way, giving it a sense of strong vitality.”

The 64-year-old painter is regarded as a very magnanimous and sincere artist.

Since his childhood, he passionately made posters throughout the anti-American War. He engraved paintings on boards, stones and glass, demonstrating various graphic techniques featuring meticulously the then critical topics including the struggle of workers, peasants and soldiers.

He is an expert in carved lacquer paintings. As early as the 1980s, Tuong successfully achieved large-sized carved paintings. At that time, there were only a few painters specialising in this genre.

“Tuong’s career and artworks are as simple, straightforward and modern as himself,” fine art critic Nguyen Quan remarks.

For the last 10 years, Tuong has moved to do paper and oil painting, because of old age and impending blindness.

“My hands are not quick anymore, and I do not have enough force to slide the carving knife on the board surface,” Tuong explains.

“His paintings on the new materials persuade me that the change is a robust introspective demand,” Quan argues.

The aspiration to express emotions and personality in a more direct and stronger manner, to liberate himself and to self-explore new aspects of his own soul and heart bring him to the freedom of pen brush strokes, water colours and the frankness of oil-paint lines.

Tuong’s paintings have a strong connection to each other. The highland colours and customs led him to draw a series. They are easily linked together and placed one after another like a multi-panelled painting.

“Even when he draws an abstract, he is able to create a sense of space with some layers and a definite profoundness,” says critic Phan Cam Thuong.

The simple and long fine-arts career with a lot of success hasn’t ended yet.

“For me, drawing is the biggest happiness of my life,” Tuong says.

The exhibition will run until January 29 at 16 Ngo Quyen Street, Ha Noi.

(Source: VNS)