NHA TRANG – An art exhibition titled Cảm hứng Việt Nam (Inspiring Việt Nam) by young Russian painter Sasha Fishler is on display at LIVINCollective in the southern province of Khánh Hòa’s Nha Trang City.

The exhibition features 38 watercolours of all sizes, presenting a beautiful tableaux of  Việt Nam filled with gentle and hospitable people.

Fishler’s paintings centre around the daily lives of ordinary people and landscapes, such as a young girl in a conical hat whose eyes stare into the distance; a boy with sparkling eyes wearing a brocade scarf; a beachfront market set up at dawn; and a girl tending buffalo on a green field.

Kane Hồ, an American-Vietnamese visitor, said he was very impressed by the paintings. “I have travelled to many parts of Việt Nam, and from what I have seen, the country and its people are beautiful. However, Fishler’s paintings have brought out a different kind of Vietnamese beauty. It seems as if she has put her whole heart and soul into it,” Hồ said.

Fishler is a young artist from Crimea. She started to paint at the age of 6 and has worked as a painter ever since. She has launched private exhibitions in Russia, Australia and Los Angeles. Inspiring Việt Nam is her first exhibition here, half a year after coming to Nha Trang City, where she has decided to settle down to live and work.

“I really love Nha Trang and have drawn many paintings for my own collection. I am also captivated by the beauty of this country and wish to share my experiences with visitors, especially foreigners. I draw to express my thoughts that cannot be conveyed with words,” Fishler said.

"Being an artist became a concrete goal over the last few years. I feel real passion for my work and it really excites me! I think it allows you to find yourself – it’s one of the most important things in my life. I think it is difficult to generalize what makes art powerful. The power of art is subjective both to the artist and consumer of it," she added.

To Fishler, realism is not the subject she intended to choose out of many diffirent styles of art, but it is the subject that chose her.

"I didn’t consciously choose a specific style or way to paint; I just start to draw and the result is realism. I just paint the way I feel and that tends to be realistic in nature, so that’s how I see my art. In Russia there is a phrase: ’The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing’, which means you just immerse yourself in the process, let your thoughts run free, and your hands take over to create the work," said Fishler.

Fishler stressed she has no favourite subjects when painting. It’s always unpredictable. Sometimes, inspiration would strike unexpectedly in the street or at home, and a composition would begin to form in her mind in oil or watercolour.

The 25-year-old added that landscapes and children were two of her greatest sources of inspiration. She also said she was planning to open a painting school for children and an individual gallery for herself in Nha Trang. Besides her main job in fine arts design and wall paintings, Fishler also runs a watercolour class for Vietnamese and foreigners in Nha Trang. — VNS