The MAG Vietnam Vol 4 Dec 2016 | Page 12

Fire Painting

Although not born in Dalat he has spent most of his childhood growing up in the city of a Thousand Flowers . Nguyen Khánh Hoàng has persevered with his career in the cold land with “ Burning Desire ”. Aged 38 , his love for his art is still fresh and full of passion .

Born in Hue , Nguyễn Khánh Hoàng moved to Dalat in 2008 and in the early years worked as a waiter in the various street food outlets during the day , at night he practised his art work specialising in portraits at the Đà Lạt night markets however competition was fierce and therefore needed to find a unique style . Khánh Hoàng had a chance meeting with a with an old man at the night markets , who scribed calligraphy on key chains and was totally taken by the amazing characters the gifted old man produced , so much so it consumed the greater part of Khánh ’ s creative mind and he pursued a passion to scribe calligraphy characters on wood paintings . To advance his quest , he visited the night stale vendors who sold calendars with calligraphy to reproduce these images with his own unique style . He has no idea how many of these calendars he was given as there was end to the generosity of the vendors wanting help him with his passion to learn the art . At this time Khánh was only earning around 5,000 ₫ a night so in order to pursue his dream he would forgo breakfast to save money for his paintbrushes . After two months of continual practise he was despondent and was ready to give up his quest . He didn ’ t , instead he worked even harder with continual practise and a renewed determination to succeed and finally the feeling of satisfaction reached his heart . “ Blowing Fire ” into paintings . To provide some income while pursuing his passion Khánh continued drawing portraits for tourists and developed the art of pyrography . Pyrography or pyro gravure is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated “ pen ”.

Although there are these days ’ modern ways of achieving the end masterpiece Khánh uses the old ways applying different pressures on his pens to achieve the result he is looking for . This form of painting is by no ways simple and requires continual practise and immense patience . Khánh carefully selects the type of timber he uses , dries it then polishes it before producing his artwork . His cliental have different requests from straight calligraphy to portraits or typical images throughout ĐÀ LẠT like Rooster
12 The MAG Vung Tau