Artist: NGUYEN HA MY

Hà My is a painter who graduated in Graphic Design at Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Art. As one of the rare artists who persistently pursues Chinese traditional painting with the genre of ornithology-flower, she uses methods such as Copy Master and the Six Guiding Laws in Chinese painting to fully convey the essence of nature.

Gongbi (工笔), which translates to "fine brushwork", besides Xieyi (写意) which translates to "free-hand brushwork", is one of the two main styles in traditional Chinese painting, which strives for the meticulousness and accuracy of the subjects. To complete a painting with Gongbi style takes a lot of time, which includes going through many steps of sketching, tracing, contouring, and applying multiple layers of colours. A finished painting is the persistent and meticulous work of the artist.

In traditional Chinese painting, painters will focus on lines and drawing flat areas, but in traditional Chinese painting, we can also adapt Western painting techniques to create a space with depth, such as Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione during the Qing Dynasty merging East and West painting methods to create a completely new look. Hence, Hà My has also learned from the knowledge of Chinese painting in the way to express lines and pen pressure, combined with the knowledge of Western watercolour paintings to create a unique feeling. The feeling is more modern than traditional Chinese painting and suitable to show her strengths which are the meticulousness and patience within each work.