PHAM HONG SON’S SUMMER DRAGONFLY FLOCK

When I had the opportunity to admire the collection of Pham Hong Son‘s works at Green Palm Gallery, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by how the simple vividness of his paintings affected the mind.

Born in 1967, Pham Hong Son is no longer strange to Vietnamese art lovers. Regularly participating in domestic and foreign exhibitions, his paintings are in many prestigious collections from Europe to Asia. Switching between oil paint and lacquer, Pham Hong Son brings the beauty of the Vietnamese landscape to a new level without needing too many details to make viewers unable to take their eyes off his works.

Pham Hong Son is famous for two lines of paintings: Oil paintings depicting daily life and lacquer paintings of summer with dragonfly wings as the center. Only some people make use of monochrome backgrounds as intelligently and attractively as in his works.

In the middle of a seemingly endless space of white, the image of industrious Vietnamese people appears prominently, like delicate wax statues mounted by the artist on the canvas. Without relying on complex shapes, the subjects in his oil paintings gently glide off the canvas to stand neatly before the viewer’s eyes, creating a graceful, romantic atmosphere in just a moment.

 

Pham Hong Son’s talent for breathing life into his paintings is even more strongly demonstrated in his lacquer works about summer. He describes summer from many angles: Sometimes it’s red hot, sometimes it’s dim dusk, or simply a cool, fresh, sunny day. No matter what dimension it is placed in, dragonflies are the most vivid subject in the painting. He did not try to create a complicated background as he mainly used only one main background color, thereby creating depth and realism for the main character in the painting. The lotus leaf is hidden in the sky but not faint, a musical interaction showing that summer has come amidst the flock of dragonflies circling around.

Pham Hong Son’s dragonfly does not overwhelm the scene but still finds a way to make a unique visual impression on the audience. Dotted on the canvas, dragonfly wings of all colors reflect the dazzling light of summer. Concentrated in small groups, they lead the viewer’s eyes through the entire scene without any boredom. The outside space may be quiet, but the paintings move continuously as we can clearly hear the beating of each individual dragonfly’s wings.

 

Thanks to that, Pham Hong Son brings his works to life when each painting has its own pulse, escaping the constraints of vision to impact all of the viewer’s senses. This is the clearest proof that a work of painting can touch the deepest corners of the souls of art lovers. The rhythmic sound of flapping wings, the heat of summer, and the fragrant smell of lotus, all possess the viewer through just one look.

For those in the Northern region, spring is the season of beginnings but also the time when the weather fairy is more moody than ever. Humid, cold, or dry, spring makes many people unconsciously wish summer would come a little faster. Pham Hong Son and the dragonflies in his works are gentle salvation, a vibrant stopping place to wait for the sunny days to come.