When we reached Mr Huynh Phu Nhieu’s, he was receiving friends from … France ! We were quite happy to meet some compatriots in such occasion. After trying to introduce ourselves by a remomeration of souvenirs and acquaintances buried for fifty years, when my uncle left Vietnam actually, Mr Nhieu finally recongnised politely : “ok, maybe I know your uncle”. During the conversation, all the neighbors came to the door, looking at us, as they were always curious to have a peek at their adorable neighbour’s life. Intrigued by the visit of two Viet Kieus in the neighborhood, they started asking Mr Nhieu if we were his nephews. Mr Nhieu looked at us and replied smiling: “yes, they are part of my family now!”
We then sat and speak French for a few moments as Mr Nhieu French was still vivid. “I learned French in high school in the 1940s”, Mr Nhieu said. “I have not used it much since then !” he joked with a distinguished accent. I told him that my friend Minh being an artist, he was very much interested in seeing Mr Nhieu’s works. Mr Nhieu explained that he was working on several paintings right now and that he kept only few finished works at his house. He then went in his bedroom and came back with a painting that he put on the table against the shelves. The painting was very minimalist, with three lotus flowers on a black background. The lotus flowers were so vivid in an eerieand soft light. “It looks like the flowers reflect a moonlight on their petals”, Minh said. Mr Nhieu seemed to approve and looked at his painting. “These three lotus flowers represent the ages in life”, he said. “The first one with the bud which has not blossomed yet is childhood. The fully open flower represents the adult period. And of course you know what the last one means.”
I looked closely at the painting and the details and freshness of colours stroke me. It was as if I could even smell the perfume of the flower. “How much time did you spend observing and sketching these flowers to reach such perfection?” I asked Mr Nhieu. Mr Nhieu smiled and looked at me in the eyes. “I never do sketch!” he replied. “Observation is one thing. You can observe, stare at things with all attention you can and then start sketching every details. I hate doing sketch. I prefer feeling the object, understanding his substance and essence. The eye cannot see everything. Things have texture, grains, malleability, toughness that you can only feel with your hand. To paint perfectly these lotus flowers, I wanted to feel them before. So I bought dozens and dozens of them. There were lotus flowers everywhere in the house, my wife thought I was crazy. Then one by one, I peeled the flowers, petal by petal, leave by leave. I discovered the inner essence of lotus flowers. The outside petals are dryer and harder. Inside the corolle, the texture is more elastic, softer like silk and the color shades are subtle, sometimes even turquoise, pale and fushia like water colors. Inside the corolle, it is more humid, especially after the rain. Each petal has its own form. And you should look at it in the candle light, it is beautiful!”
He then rushed to the bedroom and came with another painting. On this one, a woman in ao dai – the Vietnamese traditional tunique – is holding a shining lotus flower in the dark. “It breathes the midnight hour”, Mr Nhieu explained lyrically. “A sense of peace radiates form the lotus velvet mouth. The broad flower glows like a light at noon and sheds light for the young woman in the dark.” Then Mr Nhieu pauses and the silence is echoing his words. Then he sat down and refilled his cup of coffea. “In a way, the lotus flower is now in my head. I can just draw it from memory, in any background, lighting or angle. So when I start a painting, I don’t need to draw a sketch. The picture is all composed in my head and I just lay it on the canvass”.
Mr Nhieu resumed his career as a painter about 20 years ago when he retired from his job in a bank. “I graduated from the Fine Art School in 1954. Then I worked in banking and finance until 1985. Only then I could restart painting and drawing! I am very happy now”, he said. Mr Nhieu sold around 5,000 paintings. People from Australia, the US or even India are among his customers. Most of his works can be seen at Le Giang gallery on 83 Nguyen Hue street in district 1. His experience of life and his travels (in Cambodia, India and even in the US) inspired him most of his works.
His words about his technique of feeling the object impressed me. Then I asked him if this technique could be applied to… people. “How can you feel a subject? For sure you cannot touch and feel a model same as you do with lotus?” He replied smiling: “in order to memorise someone’s face, I proceed differently: I spot the ugliest part of the person’s face, whether the nose, eye, eyebrow, mouth, whatever it is and I always remember it when I draw the person! It works all the time. I can do the portrait of anyone I met from memory and it will always resemble the person!”
