Blog

my painting is included in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) from March 12, 2016 through January 8, 2017.

Tacoma Art Museum, WA

February 4, 2017 to early May 14, 2017



Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX

June 8, 2017 to September 10, 2017



Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

October 6, 2017 to January 7, 2018

http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/community/big-island-artist-s-painting-selected-national-gallery-finalist

Great news: my painting "Mending" was selected into a show at Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art in Hilo next month.

painting helped me through some dark times in my life, and now reflects a lot of positive things that are happening

Goodbye Saigon



April 1975: Everyone knows the communists will over run Saigon, but no one expected it to happen so fast. Over the last month the sound of gunfire and explosions have slowly increased in frequency and force. We are so used to it that it has become a sort of background noise no one pays any attention to. Despite this I remember waking on April 30th, alarmed at how close the sound of gun-fire and explosions was to our neighborhood. The city was in chaos, dark smoke blanketed the horizon as people ran with what ever belonging they could carry. But as I watched it seemed that very few had any idea of where to go.



My family and I hurrily packed some clothes and fled to a friends house in another part of the city called Cho-Lon which was safer. We could no longer stay in our home because it was near an army camp and therefore dangerous. My father was not with us because he and my mother had separated years earlier. Adding to our anxiety was a rumorthat the communists have threatened to flatten Saigon if there is resistance. By noon the presidential palace had fallen and we knew it was all over. I was only 7 years old at the time and did not realize how bad the situation was, so I innocently told my mom that now Vietnam will be one country again so she can go back to North Vietnam to see grandmother. My mom was delighted with the thought.

Later that afternoon we drove to the harbor to see what was going on since the radio station had been captured by the communist and we no longer were getting any news. As we drove around the streets were now completely deserted and an strange silence had fallen on the city. The only people we saw were a few people left still burning records and documents in front of some government and military installations. More ominous was the fact that in the harbor most of the navy and merchant ships had already left. I asked my mom what was going on but she seemed lost in her thoughts, maybe she was thinking of the harsh choice she would soon have to make.


My uncle and his wife had been staying one step ahead of the communists since they fled the central highlands. Because of the speed of the communist advance, the roads were jammed with refugees fleeing south making progress impossible for vehicles. Eventhough they did not want to be separated, my uncle was forced to put his wife on one of the boats heading to Saigon because she was pregnant and would never be able to keep up on foot. When he finally made it to Saigon a few weeks later, he found out that his wife has not arrived and not knowing where she was or what else to do, decided to stay with us in hope that she would find him. Later we learned that the boat she was on had unexpectedly dropped everyone, including his wife, off at Cam Ranh Bay (another city in the central highlands) to go back north for more refugees. My poor aunt was unable to find a way to get to Saigon until after the fighting was over and escape was impossible.



Mean while for the rest of us, time was running out. We knew that if we were going to leave it had to be now. We waved down one of the few remaining navy boats which was headed out to sea but stopped to pick us up. At this time not everyone was willing to escape by boat so while it was crowded, there was none of the panic and fighting such as I saw in the photos taken at the American Embassy that day as the last helicopters were leaving. The gun-fire was getting closer and my uncle was torn between staying to look for his wife and escaping, he was worried that he and his wife would face retribution if he stayed because he had been in the army. My mother was hesistant to get on board because she had to choose between leaving with us or staying so that she could see her mother for the first time since 1954 when north and south Vietnam were separated. Finally she decided to stay and promised to find us after the war ended. As the boat pulled away I can still remember my mother standing on the dock, crying and waving to us. I was yelling : "Stop the boat, go back and get my mom", but it was too late. In those few minutes my family was torn apart and for last time I saw Vietnam. As my mother watched the boat leaving with her children she was overcome with grief and changed her mind. Desperately she stood at the dock for five hours waiting for another boat to take her out to our ship, but none came.

On the way out of Saigon, we saw hundreds of returning boats and some of them warned us not to go on because troops were shooting at any boats trying to escape to the open sea. The people on our boat were very determined and decided to take their chances and leave.

Many of the boats we saw leaving were severely overloaded and one of the ships had run aground in shallow water. Our smaller boat pulled along side the old, rust streaked ship and an agreement was reached that everyone who wanted to could transfer from our boat to the ship, and in return our boat would help pull the ship into deeper water. After struggling for three or four hours both vessels finally reached deep water and all passengers were transfered. The small boat turned back toward Saigon, taking a few people who had changed their minds and decided to go back. The ship, even more overcrowded than before slowly headed out to the open ocean for the long dangerous voyage ahead.


Even though we had made it out of Saigon there was no celebrating, everyone was dwelling on what they had left behind and what the uncertain future would hold. That night was pitch black, there were no lights on our ship or on shore. We watched fireworks shooting up from the coastal villages into the dark sky. The communists were celebrating their victory and we could hear one of the generals broadcasting a new set of rules which he called " the ten commandments ". These commandments were to govern life for those left behind in the new Vietnam. Our intended destination was Singapore and we slowly headed south. The weather was good and if it were not for the grim circumstances I might have been able to appreciate the beauty of the blue ocean and the small islands we passed. Once we saw some whales which terrified everyone because they were nearly as large as our ship and came very close. When I look back on the event, I think that everyone leaning over one side to watch the whales was more dangerous to the ship than the whales themselves.

Things started to go seriously wrong a couple of days into the journey when our engine broke down. I guess this was not very surprising considering how old and decrepit our ship was to start with. There were many more small boats from coastal villages followed us and dumping refugees onto our ship each day. The water started to coming in from an existing hole on the side of the hull of our ship which is now below the waterline because of the refugees' weight. After drifting a few days, our food and water were running out, making an already bad situation very desperate. People started to fight over food and water. Everyone was being very careful to ration their water and food except for this popular singer from Saigon who would use a great deal of her small supply of water to wash her face each day. Obviously some people are more afraid of being unattractive than dying.

Everyone thought that we were going to die slowly and horribly, despair settled over the ship like a numbing fog. A man near me decided not to wait and shot himself in the head. I remember screaming when his blood and brain tissue splattering on me. On the crowded deck there was no where to store the body so there was no choice but to toss his body overboard and within minutes the sharks were fighting over it. As days passed, so great was my fear and loss that I felt neither hunger or thirst. My mind had cut off my ability to feel or comprehend what was happening around me, which was maybe a good thing considering what life was like onboard. Even though the ship was extremely overcrowded there was very little talking, everyone seemed wrapped up in their own misery. My brother and sister sat nearby crying and hugging each other. The crowding was so great that one night when I stood up to stretch, I found that I could no longer find a space to sit back down so I ended up standing the entire night until I collapsed. Having learned my lesson I did not get up again until we were rescued.

Despite our SOS signals and desperate attempts to get their attention, many ships passed us by without stopping but finally after floating what seemed like forever we were picked up by a Dannish freighter out of Thailand on their way to Hong Kong. After being left by so many other ships, everyone was afraid that if we did not get onboard the freighter fast enough they would leave without us. Most of the people started to panic and there was alot of pushing and shoving to get on board. Some fights even broke out and many passengers left their personal belongings behind in the mad rush. One man's leg got crushed between the two ships when they collided into each other. Many others fell into the water and drowned during the rescued. By the time we were rescued, I could not move my legs because of sitting in one spot for so long; I had to be carried up to the freighter by one of the ship's crew. That night as I was resting from my ordeal someone stole all the cash and jewelry that my mother had given me.

So when it was over all I had left of Vietnam were memories of people and places that had been left behind. For many years afterward, I would get angry when I thought about what had happened and what I lost. I was not angry at anyone in particular, rather I was angry how events and idealologies which I did not understand could take me from everything I knew and loved.

I wrote this article for the San Diego Tribune

article about my work in local newspaper!

I got great news this morning!
I was contacted by the curator at the Smithsonian Museum National Portrait Gallery that my painting was selected as semifinalist and it is going to Washington D.C. for the final selection of the Outwin Bouchever Portrait Competition 2016.........I am so happy and shocked that I got this far....it is time to celebrate . Aloha

doing final touchups

just delivered "Two Boats" to Third Dimension gallery. The owner likes it so much and she hanged it up front right at the entrance to the gallery.
Hope this one will sell fast like last one. Aloha

Two Boats, oil on canvas, 30x40 inches, created exclusively for Third Dimension Gallery at the shops at Mauna Lani, Big Island of Hawaii

I understand it might be tempting to create work similar to the work you see in galleries. But you should understand the art world is always changing. By the time you develop the skill set to replicate popular art, it may be out of style. The safer choice is to just make the work you enjoy. Then, do your best to promote your art and create a collector base. It should be your goal to create the next popular style, rather then follow the styles of the past.

I just got a phone call from the Third Dimension Gallery and they sold my over size painting "Change of Season".....woohoo...I'm so happy today I could scream loud across the ocean. I did not know that my painting would be selling so fast. I brought it into the gallery less than a month ago! WOW
:) Aloha

Change of Season, oil on canvas, gallery wrap, 36x48 inches

http://thu-nguyen.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-valentine-dress-thu-nguyen.html

A slice of daily life: everyday is a work day

http://instagram.com/thunguyenpaintings

I was recently featured in Professional Artist magazine "Artist Spotlight: Thu Nguyen" .
You can get the issue here: http://bit.ly/PA_OctNov14

hurricane made big news in Hawaii and my painting made the front page at a local newspaper here in Mukilteo at the same time....the Mukilteo Beacon interviewed me recently and I thought the article would be out sometimes next week but to my surprise...this afternoon I took my kids to the pool and several people recognized me from reading the newspaper and seen my picture. They started to asked me a lot of questions about my work....it really made my day

Great news!
My work will be featured in "Spotlight" section of the magazine in October/November issue.
They interviewed me yesterday :)

Just completed this one.
"Looking Away"
16x20 inches
oil on linen
framed ready for hanging
price upon request: thu@thunguyenpaintings.com

Paint my life...to me paint what you know because the result will be your best work. Over the span of my years, I have painted many pictures that so far tell the story of my life

This is an exhibit by artists from Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, British Columbia, and Alaska. Juried by Greg Robinson.

Greg Robinson is the executive director and curator of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, which opened June 2013. Previously he was executive director of the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, director of William Traver Gallery in Tacoma, and executive director of Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.
Greg has participated in numerous jury processes for exhibitions and awards, and has served on the Betty Bowen Award Committee of Seattle Art Museum for 13 years. He is originally from Seattle and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University.

This show is sponsored by Northwind Arts Center and the Port Townsend Arts Commission
Show schedule August 1 - August 31, 2014
Show location: Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, WA

April 1975: Everyone knows the communists will over run Saigon, but no one expected it to happen so fast. Over the last month the sound of gunfire and explosions have slowly increased in frequency and force. We are so used to it that it has become a sort of background noise no one pays any attention to. Despite this I remember waking on April 30th, alarmed at how close the sound of gun-fire and explosions was to our neighborhood. The city was in chaos, dark smoke blanketed the horizon as people ran with what ever belonging they could carry. But as I watched it seemed that very few had any idea of where to go.



My family and I hurrily packed some clothes and fled to a friends house in another part of the city called Cho-Lon which was safer. We could no longer stay in our home because it was near an army camp and therefore dangerous. My father was not with us because he and my mother had separated years earlier. Adding to our anxiety was a rumorthat the communists have threatened to flatten Saigon if there is resistance. By noon the presidential palace had fallen and we knew it was all over. I was only 7 years old at the time and did not realize how bad the situation was, so I innocently told my mom that now Vietnam will be one country again so she can go back to North Vietnam to see grandmother. My mom was delighted with the thought.

Later that afternoon we drove to the harbor to see what was going on since the radio station had been captured by the communist and we no longer were getting any news. As we drove around the streets were now completely deserted and an strange silence had fallen on the city. The only people we saw were a few people left still burning records and documents in front of some government and military installations. More ominous was the fact that in the harbor most of the navy and merchant ships had already left. I asked my mom what was going on but she seemed lost in her thoughts, maybe she was thinking of the harsh choice she would soon have to make.


My uncle and his wife had been staying one step ahead of the communists since they fled the central highlands. Because of the speed of the communist advance, the roads were jammed with refugees fleeing south making progress impossible for vehicles. Eventhough they did not want to be separated, my uncle was forced to put his wife on one of the boats heading to Saigon because she was pregnant and would never be able to keep up on foot. When he finally made it to Saigon a few weeks later, he found out that his wife has not arrived and not knowing where she was or what else to do, decided to stay with us in hope that she would find him. Later we learned that the boat she was on had unexpectedly dropped everyone, including his wife, off at Cam Ranh Bay (another city in the central highlands) to go back north for more refugees. My poor aunt was unable to find a way to get to Saigon until after the fighting was over and escape was impossible.



Mean while for the rest of us, time was running out. We knew that if we were going to leave it had to be now. We waved down one of the few remaining navy boats which was headed out to sea but stopped to pick us up. At this time not everyone was willing to escape by boat so while it was crowded, there was none of the panic and fighting such as I saw in the photos taken at the American Embassy that day as the last helicopters were leaving. The gun-fire was getting closer and my uncle was torn between staying to look for his wife and escaping, he was worried that he and his wife would face retribution if he stayed because he had been in the army. My mother was hesistant to get on board because she had to choose between leaving with us or staying so that she could see her mother for the first time since 1954 when north and south Vietnam were separated. Finally she decided to stay and promised to find us after the war ended. As the boat pulled away I can still remember my mother standing on the dock, crying and waving to us. I was yelling : "Stop the boat, go back and get my mom", but it was too late. In those few minutes my family was torn apart and for last time I saw Vietnam. As my mother watched the boat leaving with her children she was overcome with grief and changed her mind. Desperately she stood at the dock for five hours waiting for another boat to take her out to our ship, but none came.

On the way out of Saigon, we saw hundreds of returning boats and some of them warned us not to go on because troops were shooting at any boats trying to escape to the open sea. The people on our boat were very determined and decided to take their chances and leave.

Many of the boats we saw leaving were severely overloaded and one of the ships had run aground in shallow water. Our smaller boat pulled along side the old, rust streaked ship and an agreement was reached that everyone who wanted to could transfer from our boat to the ship, and in return our boat would help pull the ship into deeper water. After struggling for three or four hours both vessels finally reached deep water and all passengers were transfered. The small boat turned back toward Saigon, taking a few people who had changed their minds and decided to go back. The ship, even more overcrowded than before slowly headed out to the open ocean for the long dangerous voyage ahead.


Even though we had made it out of Saigon there was no celebrating, everyone was dwelling on what they had left behind and what the uncertain future would hold. That night was pitch black, there were no lights on our ship or on shore. We watched fireworks shooting up from the coastal villages into the dark sky. The communists were celebrating their victory and we could hear one of the generals broadcasting a new set of rules which he called " the ten commandments ". These commandments were to govern life for those left behind in the new Vietnam. Our intended destination was Singapore and we slowly headed south. The weather was good and if it were not for the grim circumstances I might have been able to appreciate the beauty of the blue ocean and the small islands we passed. Once we saw some whales which terrified everyone because they were nearly as large as our ship and came very close. When I look back on the event, I think that everyone leaning over one side to watch the whales was more dangerous to the ship than the whales themselves.

Things started to go seriously wrong a couple of days into the journey when our engine broke down. I guess this was not very surprising considering how old and decrepit our ship was to start with. There were many more small boats from coastal villages followed us and dumping refugees onto our ship each day. The water started to coming in from an existing hole on the side of the hull of our ship which is now below the waterline because of the refugees' weight. After drifting a few days, our food and water were running out, making an already bad situation very desperate. People started to fight over food and water. Everyone was being very careful to ration their water and food except for this popular singer from Saigon who would use a great deal of her small supply of water to wash her face each day. Obviously some people are more afraid of being unattractive than dying.

Everyone thought that we were going to die slowly and horribly, despair settled over the ship like a numbing fog. A man near me decided not to wait and shot himself in the head. I remember screaming when his blood and brain tissue splattering on me. On the crowded deck there was no where to store the body so there was no choice but to toss his body overboard and within minutes the sharks were fighting over it. As days passed, so great was my fear and loss that I felt neither hunger or thirst. My mind had cut off my ability to feel or comprehend what was happening around me, which was maybe a good thing considering what life was like onboard. Even though the ship was extremely overcrowded there was very little talking, everyone seemed wrapped up in their own misery. My brother and sister sat nearby crying and hugging each other. The crowding was so great that one night when I stood up to stretch, I found that I could no longer find a space to sit back down so I ended up standing the entire night until I collapsed. Having learned my lesson I did not get up again until we were rescued.

Despite our SOS signals and desperate attempts to get their attention, many ships passed us by without stopping but finally after floating what seemed like forever we were picked up by a Dannish freighter out of Thailand on their way to Hong Kong. After being left by so many other ships, everyone was afraid that if we did not get onboard the freighter fast enough they would leave without us. Most of the people started to panic and there was alot of pushing and shoving to get on board. Some fights even broke out and many passengers left their personal belongings behind in the mad rush. One man's leg got crushed between the two ships when they collided into each other. Many others fell into the water and drowned during the rescued. By the time we were rescued, I could not move my legs because of sitting in one spot for so long; I had to be carried up to the freighter by one of the ship's crew. That night as I was resting from my ordeal someone stole all the cash and jewelry that my mother had given me.

So when it was over all I had left of Vietnam were memories of people and places that had been left behind. For many years afterward, I would get angry when I thought about what had happened and what I lost. I was not angry at anyone in particular, rather I was angry how events and idealologies which I did not understand could take me from everything I knew and loved.

I wrote this article for the San Diego Tribune

This is the last week to see my show "Small Treasures" at the Fountainhead Gallery, 625 W. McGraw St., Seattle WA
Thursday and Friday 11-6
Saturday and Sunday 12-5
Show ends Sunday October 27
let me know what you think of the show
Thanks
Thu

my upcoming solo exhibition:
"Small Treasures"
October 3 - 27, 2013
Reception: Saturday, October 5, 2013 , 5-7 p.m.
Fountainhead Gallery, Seattle Washington.
My work has been represented by the Fountainhead Gallery since 2004
If you are in Seattle areas, please stop by and say hello. I would love to meet all of you in person !

6:30 A.M., oil on panel, framed, 16 x 21.5 inches, $1,500
Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just…embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.

A woman sooner or later discovers that she is the master-gardener of her soul, the director of her life.

I think the distinction between "study" and "finished composition" has been somewhat blurred. Consider the fact that Monet painted "Impression, Sunrise" very quickly, generating the name of a whole artistic movement: Impressionism. It was hardly a finished composition in the sense that the "Old Masters" thought of it, so it was a study. Plein air painters today often follow the impressionist lead in the matter, finishing a painting in one session and on site. A study can be so attractive that it rivals or surpasses a finished work. Because of it's freshness and immediacy, it has charm.

Midday Sun, oil on panel, 16x20 inches



This painting belongs to an ongoing series of my old neighborhood in Monroe Washington. It is an nostalgia of the good old days when life was at its best for me...

1 A.M., oil on panel, 24x32 inches

A blind man can make art if what is in his mind can be passed to another mind in some tangible form.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Hello my friends, just in case you miss my announcement earlier:
I got a new fb fan page, please come and "like" me if you would like to see my future posts and new work since I'm going to switch over from my friends page in 2 weeks
http://www.facebook.com/ThuNguyenFineArtPainting

4:30 A.M., oil on panel, 24.75x27 inches

Winter Afternoon Monroe Washington, oil on panel , 16x20 inches

Mermaid at 52, oil on panel, 16x20 inches

"Many of the elements of a landscape are variable. The ground itself can appear to change texture and color under different lights and weather conditions; the vegetation that creates the detail of landscape moves in the wind and changes with the seasons... once you focus on the scene objectively you will discover any number of nuances and details that could be included ... Relate the structure of the composition to your immediate interest in the subject and the time you can spend..."

I just completed "May Morning Arkansas River" series after 18 months long hard at work, stop by and let me know what you think.
Thanks
Thu
http://www.thunguyenpaintings.blogspot.com

La Salle Hotel, 24x30 inches, oil on panel

I am taking great pleasure in the basics of making art: the physical act of observing, recording , and painting

Corner of 157th St. and 168th Ave., oil on panel, 16x20 inches

8:30 A.M., oil on panel, 16x20 inches

15698 168th Ave. S.E., oil on panel, 16x20 inches

Late Afternoon Sun, 16x20 inches, oil on panel

2 A.M., oil on panel

5:30 A.M., 16x20 inches, oil on panel

"The term negative space means background space. It's called negative space to distinguish it from the positive subject matter that occupies the center of interest. ...The term negative may confuse some readers because it implies a lack of importance. Yet shapes in the negative area have distinctive characteristics of their own, equal in importance to shapes in other areas."

8 A.M., oil on panel, 24x32.25 inches

Enfamil at Ha Long Bay Vietnam, 24x32.25 inches, oil on panel

3:30 A.M. , oil on panel, 24x32 inches

Midnight, 24x32 inches, oil on panel

7:30 A.M., oil on panel, 16x21.5 inches

Midnight Conversation, oil on panel, 16x20 inches

A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.

8 A.M., oil on panel, 24x32 inches

1 A.M., oil on panel, 24x32 inches

Mermaid at 52, 16x20 inches, oil on panel

Enfamil at Ha Long Bay Vietnam, oil on panel, 24x32.25 inches

Capturing an emotion is so much more powerful than just copying an appearance, I don't want to be restricted by rules of what something should look like. I want to bring my own personal interpretation to the panel and connect with viewers on a higher emotional level.

Hello all, I will no longer emailing updates, if you wish , please follow me
on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/ThuNguyenPaintings
or my blog:
http://www.thunguyenpaintings.blogspot.com
Thank you
see you all there!
Thu

Goodnews: this painting got selected into Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait 2011 competition! Yahoo!!! and it will appear in a book published by them :)

article about my work from the Beacon, Mukilteo, WA

fine art prints and greeting cards from my paintings for sale here:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/thu-nguyen.html

article published by The Leader daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Arkansas