The theme of flowers is always chosen by artist Vinh Đan
Still riding the bike along the streets in almost 50 years, he sometimes carried dozens of mini oil paintings. Every afternoon or morning, he stopped by the road holding some paintings to introduce to customers at cafes. If he was excited, he would take out his pens and papers to draw a sketch of potential customers.
There were people contemplating his paintings carefully; while some only watched them briefly. There were also people showing their disregard and disdain without a glance; however, he did not pay attention to them. Then, he chattered as a speaker introducing the products and sometimes referred to some famous artists of the world.
The most precious thing is that many doctors, engineers, teachers, poets... bought Vinh Đan’s paintings for loving them and for supporting him to have a faith in his life. Vinh Đan needed only a few hundred thousand for each of his paintings for drinking coffee and purchasing pigments to recreate new paintings.
Reed flower
Artist Vinh Đan was probably the first one selling his own paintings along the streets in Hue city. Indeed, his sale job was of fun and effective. Not so many people would come and enjoy paintings displayed at artists’ houses. Meanwhile, Vinh Đan just took a dozen works with him and then dropped by any cafe to introduce his work.
One day, he lined up dozens of his work on the roadside like a super fast exhibition. Some people made a joke that by adding a panel themed “A mobile paintings exhibition of artist Vinh Đan”, the exhibition would be officially launched. By saying that, we could see how much passion Vinh Đan reserved for painting. He used to draw paintings in small sizes, perhaps, due to his health, his insufficiency of budget to buy pigments and big canvas, and especially their portability on bike.
Gerbara flower
Paintings by Vinh Đan were drawn with a liberal and romantic style and were somewhat surreal. Among his genres, the most prominent were the paintings of flowers.
The flower that Vinh Đan painted seemed to have an aroma of time and colours blended themselves in harmony to create an art space to impress viewers. In each of his brush strokes, there was still the innocence of his childhood.
Vinh Đan is the sixth descendant of Emperor Minh Mạng, belonging to Tuy Ly Vuong Residence. He is the nephew of the famous artist Buu Chi. On the occasion of the new year, he visited Gac Trinh for a coffee and showed off the work he just produced. Indeed, if he had a good health and financial conditions, I believe that Vinh Đan’s reputation will be reached out.
Story and photos: Hoang Diep Lac