HÀ NỘI — Water coloured paintings of nature and portraits of people throughout the country will be displayed soon in downtown Hà Nội.

Titled “Spring Colours”, the event features 50 painting by six artists, two professional [Nguyễn Đình Lâm and Hoàng Quốc Tuấn] and the rest architects [Lương Bình, Nguyễn Đức Cường, Phạm Thanh Sơn and Thẩm Trọng Hiếu]. This is the group's first exhibition although they have been travelling on field trips together.

Grape Fruit Flower, 76x56cm, watercolour, by Phạm Thanh Sơn

“We all love watercolours and want to inspire people with this material,” architect Phạm Thanh Sơn, head of the team told Việt Nam News.

“Watercolours can describe people and things very well but it has not been widely appreciated by veteran painters from fine arts colleges, where no teachers have taught this style of painting.

“We like this simple material. Oil on canvas, the smell is strong while lacquer painting is quite complicated.” 

Summer, 76x56cm, watercolour by Nguyễn Đình Lâm

Sơn said though the artists are of different ages, he is the oldest [mid forties] and the rest aged between 25 and 37, they share the same love for nature and people.

Colourful gardens with flowers at sunrise, a simple vase with flowers on a table, a wrinkled face or innocent eyes are some of the inspiration they feed off. All the paintings were drawn in the past two years.

Orchid Flower Season, 76x56cm, watercolour by Thẩm Trọng Hiếu

“Spring scenery brings people lots of energy, especially with the pandemic almost over, we need more energy to revive ourselves, ” he said.

“Simple is beautiful – that’s our philosophy in our creations. Drawing right, then it will be automatically beautiful.”

They use Japanese watercolours and paper from China and France.

All of them have joined various exhibitions in and outside the country.

Thẩm Trọng Hiếu, 25, the youngest in the group, graduated from the Hà Nội Architecture University. His work has been exhibited in Italy, France and Poland.

The exhibition will run at Exhibition House 93 Đinh Tiên Hoàng between April 2 and 11. VNS

Tranquillity, 76x56cm, watercolour by Nguyễn Đức Cường