Girls & Flowers in Ai Lan’s paintings

Afternoon

In the paintings of the artist Ai Lan, in addition to the color of the expression, the subtle facial expressions draw the viewer into the soul of the artist through the strong association. Interaction between visual and external objects has led viewers to reminisce in their own beautiful memories. It is also the memory of the artist shared with other empathic souls.

The series of paintings with pink tones of brown earth are like flashbacks in movies. They have opened a multi-dimensional space connection between past and present, with girls and flowers as the main body of work. The girl in the gentle dress of the "Moon string instrument" painting is honored as a lotus blossoming among the leaves, with music and a piece of late moon. If you pay close attention, you will feel the melancholy in the face of the girl in the paintings of Ai Lan, the beauty of sadness usually lasts longer than the dazzling first impression. Far away, in the painting "Nostalgia", we also see the shadow of the city and sparkling of the lotus lake of Hue.

Nostalgia

In those days, the summer noonday also brought beautiful dreams for childhood; the "Summer noon" of Ai Lan gives the audience a feeling of extraordinary solitude. In addition to the series of earthy pink, there are works with bright colors of green patches such as grass or leaf shoots in green, in which the main image is still a young woman with long arms in the endless afternoon. Some of the nude paintings of Ai Lan also let the viewer feel the beauty of Mother Nature through the image of the woman, a beauty that is like the flower of God. This is a way the artist honor beauty.

Summer noon

In 2010, Ai Lan participated in Hue Festival. Hue is always in the subconscious mind of this artist, because through her paintings, the viewer can feel the scents of a distant past. At that time, each step of girls upon the grounds of the ancient capital still resonated the sounds of wooden clogs and the aroma of locust in their long hair, dancing in the wind. Some musical instruments such as the pipa, the two-string or moon string instruments... have also been incorporated into the paintings vividly and harmoniously.

Ai Lan's paintings have the rippling flow of color, harmony between light and dark, soft but not weak. The young women in Ai Lan’s paintings are erotic in a shy and discreet way... Each painting of the girls of the ancient capital is a rhythmic melody in the afternoons in this sacred land, connecting the past and the future.

Story, photos: LE HUYNH LAM