HÀ NỘI — An oil on canvas painting by popular painter Hoàng Định has been displayed in Rome after receiving the Giulio Cesare Art Emperor International prize by the prestigious Art International Contemporary Magazine.

Giai Điệu Của Tre (Bamboo’s Melody), 155x205cm, features the Vietnamese countryside with bamboo grove, boats and other simple images that have been familiar to many generations of Vietnamese people.

This year, the magazine presented the prize to 96 among nearly 1,000 painters from all over the world.

“All who have seen marshes overwhelmed with the sound of bamboo leaves on autumn wind and watched floating boats on rivers will understand my feelings when I use visual signs of colours to express the sounds of autumn in those villages,” Định told Việt Nam News.

The work has been displayed at Velli Palace in Rome, Italy since the awarding ceremony on July 7.

Bamboo in Định’s painting is not green but mingles with hot colours like yellow, brown and red.

Painter Hoàng Định. — Photos from facebook of the painter

In order to highlight movement in various dimensions of the space, Định used many short strokes with mingling colours to create visual signs.

“Audiences may sense clearly the movement of bamboo, imagine the winds, the sound of bamboo leaves in the wind. All of these features have brought as if musical features for the painting,” commented painter Đào Quốc Huy.

The painting will be displayed at the Việt Nam Fine Arts Museum, 66 Nguyễn Thái Học Street on October 28 together with paintings by Thai-Dutch artist Somsak Chaituch.

Định earned a master’s degree in Graphic Arts and Package Design in the Netherlands. He is now working as a lecturer on graphics, yet his passion is painting, especially painting scenes from the countryside.

"Định is an internationally acclaimed Vietnamese artist and a national treasure," wrote Bob Berman, a collector from Canada, in his blog, "I’m an art lover and on my flight to Hanoi, to my surprise, contrary to my preconceptions, I read about Định in the airline magazine which featured a picture of one of his watercolours about to be part of his upcoming exhibit in Hanoi’s Museum of Fine Arts.

"There was something about Định’s story and his watercolour that moved me to hire a guide in Hà Nội to locate him and arrange a meeting. When we met there was an instant connection. He doesn’t speak English and my Vietnamese is non-existent. But that didn’t matter. Our connection was heart to heart and his art and infections creative energy was the medium. The feeling between us was palpable and ever so healing." — VNS