Painter Nguyen Doan Son: Warm colors
(Baonghean) - Looking at the paintings of artist Nguyen Doan Son, viewers do not care about what is real or what is unreal, but feel the warm colors spreading in their hearts.
I always think of warm colors when thinking of painter Nguyen Doan Son. Not only because the first impression when looking at his paintings is the warmth from the colors that can inspire and convey love; but also because of the stories about Son through the people I know. An artist with a warm heart, although many people still joke about Son, "only knows how to draw, knows nothing else".
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| Nguyen Doan Son guides students in drawing. Photo: PV |
Portrait of Nghe An painter
Painter Nguyen Doan Son is from Do Luong, graduated from the University of Industrial Fine Arts; Philip Morrist 1998 joint prize, Capital Fine Arts Exhibition 2000. “Bui Xuan Phai - For the love of Hanoi” prize for the painting “Hanoi ramparts and flowers”. Doan Son is one of the authors who participated in the ceramic painting on the banks of the Red River - Hanoi.
I first heard about Nguyen Doan Son through the poet Bao Ngoc, his wife. When she accidentally found out that I was from Nghe An, Ngoc boasted: "Oh, my husband is also from Nghe An. Do Luong". And she expressed her admiration for the easy-going, sincere nature of Nghe An people, most specifically expressed through her husband.Her husband came back from a friend's house the other day. After a while, he called her and said, "Come and bring the shoes back to your husband." She was surprised and asked, "Oh, how did you know they were his shoes?" "Who would wear shoes covered in oil paint like him?" He replied, and both sisters burst out laughing. After a while, Ngoc asked her husband again, and he scratched his head and said, "Because I suddenly wanted to go back and finish the painting. I wanted to finish the painting, so I only thought about the painting and forgot." It was that simple, the artist of the muse walked home barefoot in the middle of the street.
Many friends who know about Ngoc and Son's love still admire them. They are always young and beautiful for their age, always cheerful together. They are devoted to their work and art. And especially, if someone says that artists are jealous, artists are not faithful, then in this case, they are completely wrong. The muse and the painter always have complete trust and love for each other.
When he needs to buy gifts for his female students or female friends, he always asks his wife for advice. Even if he is too busy, he will... "borrow" his wife's things (sometimes handbags, sometimes souvenirs...) to give as gifts, and return them later because he has absolute trust in his wife's aesthetic taste and thoughtfulness. Among his students, many female students are crazy about him because of his romantic appearance and most importantly, because his drawings are always attractive. But then, many girls confide in his wife: "You are so lucky. Besides drawing, he doesn't care about anything else."
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| Artist Doan Son in a class. Photo: PV |
I always wonder where Son finds the time to do so much art work. In addition to painting, Nguyen Doan Son also teaches. He opened a Master of Fine Arts Academy in Hanoi, teaching drawing exam preparation, comic illustration, and multimedia graphic design. At his pottery workshop, students come to learn clay molding, pottery painting...
He often has courses to take students on field trips near and far. In addition, he also makes many clips and writes many detailed drawing tutorials for art lovers on youtube and facebook. And above all, his inspiration is still maintained, he still creates many genres: oil painting, silk painting, ceramic painting. In every genre, Son makes his mark.
Paintings tell storiesOf course, when mentioning Son's paintings, it would be a mistake not to mention the "giant" oil painting: "Hanoi, ramparts and flowers" (size 2.15 x 9.3m). After the exhibition in June 2008, it received enthusiastic response from Hanoians and was honored to be awarded the "Bui Xuan Phai - For the love of Hanoi" prize.
The painting recreates unforgettable images of the early days of the National Resistance War in Hanoi in 1946, with trenches, hand-to-hand combat in the streets, with images of self-defense soldiers, liaison children, supply girls bringing flowers into the barricades, touching moments between two battles... Touching, romantic, tragic, heroic, those impressive emotions almost completely capture the hearts of the viewer when standing in front of "Hanoi barricades and flowers".
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| Painting "Two Sisters" by Nguyen Doan Son. Photo: NVCC |
To create this painting, Son not only used canvas and paint but also had to use a very high scaffolding. The space for creating the painting was a company's parking lot. At that time, in his thirties, Son had already made many friends and colleagues admire him, because in addition to his passion for creation, he also needed the diligence of a "Nghe scholar" to be able to do it.
Nguyen Doan Son shared: “My generation was not born during the war, so when we grew up, we only saw war through shells, tank wrecks, stories and what was recorded and reflected in books, newspapers, movies... Expressing historical works requires fiction and imagination and in many cases, this brings new aesthetic meaning. To express the image of a mother with gray hair and a hunched back, carrying an oil lamp in her hand, walking beside her wounded child who was being led home after a life-saving battle for the Fatherland, it took me quite a while but I still could not find the image of the mother as imagined, and it was also very difficult to find a model. Once, I went to visit a friend's house in Ha Dong. I stood on the balcony and saw an old lady watering the plants in the house on the other side. Her way of dressing, her hair bun and her posture exuded the features of an old Hanoian and I kept clicking the camera. I came across the character in everyday life by chance like that”...
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| Painting My Buffalo by Nguyen Doan Son. Photo: NVCC |
: “I want to find another way for historical paintings, so that they can have a life in social and cultural activities. Instead of complaining about not having money and blaming society for not caring about historical paintings, I just try to do my best within my ability… I want to do well to create a buzz and win the public’s sympathy first. I don’t want to do art in a vicious circle: if given little money, the quality of the work is low, and because the work is of low quality, I receive little money.”
Contemplation with the field is one of Son’s surrealist paintings that is loved by many people. The field is being narrowed by aggressive cranes, nestled between the high-rise buildings that have been and are being built. Chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, pumpkins, etc. fly up into the hazy sky. In the middle of the narrowing field, the farmer bows his head and leans on his stick like a mourner sending off the green fields, the crops, and the animals that have been with him all his life to the infinite.
Expressing topical topics through paintings, Son’s colors and lines do not make viewers feel forced but are still full of emotions. Not every artist can succeed with such a seemingly dry and difficult topic. Besides a skillful technique, one must also have a heart that loves the fields, deeply understands and shares with the fate of people covered in mud – only someone born and attached to the fields like Son can paint.
Paintings of landscapes and people associated with the countryside are a topic that Son is quite interested in and also receive much love from the public. He has had many paintings of this topic participating in exhibitions. Son painted a girl playing the guitar by the river, in the distance is a ferry, small houses hidden in the green trees along the river. Son painted a girl pulling a buffalo to the field; painted a boy clinging to his mother's shirt to go to the Tet market, conical hats fluttering at the village market... The interesting thing is, from very real topics, the way of expression is also very real, but the whole picture is still unreal, real, full of creativity. However, looking at Son's paintings, the viewer does not care about what is unreal, what is real, but feels the warm colors spreading in their hearts.
