HCM CITY — Veteran artist Nguyễn Trịnh Thái of Hà Nội is introducing 43 paintings featuring Vietnamese landscapes and people to HCM City gallery visitors.

The Gặp Lại Sài Gòn (We Meet Again Sài Gòn) exhibition, which opened at the city’s Fine Arts Museum on Thursday, displays works in lacquer, acrylic and oil depicting the peaceful life in northern Việt Nam.

Thái is also showing six lacquer paintings, including Nhà Trên Sông (Houses on River), featuring landscapes of Hà Nội, the Hồng River Delta and the northern mountainous regions.

The 66-year-old artist uses bright and vivid colours of green, yellow, red and blue to portray the tranquillity of the land in oil paintings Phố Chợ Đồng Văn (Đồng Văn Market) and Phiên Chợ Vùng Cao (Weekend Market in Mountainous Region).

Dĩ Vãng (The Past) and Trước Gương (In Front of Mirror) dwell on the beauty and charm of Vietnamese women.

The exhibition also features a portrait of the painter, two still life paintings titled Bạch Liên (White Lotuses) and Hoa Hướng Dương (Sunflowers), and three abstract acrylic paintings.

Born in Phnom Penh, Thái was one of the first graduates of the Việt Nam College of Fine Arts and Cinematography.

He, who has worked as a designer for Việt Nam Film Studio for 30 years, has also been involved in classic movies Vĩ Tuyến 17 Ngày Và Đêm (Parallel 17, Days and Nights) and Biệt Động Sài Gòn (Sài Gòn’s Special Task Force).

Thái has held dozens of solo and group exhibitions in Việt Nam, France, Canada and Finland.

His works are in private collections and at the Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum and State Museum of Oriental Art in Russia.

The exhibition, at 97A Phó Đức Chính Street in District 1, will run until July 17. — VNS