In some people’s eyes, Le Thi is an old woman, but she’s still a relatively new face to the arts scene in Vietnam.
Painter Le Thi
It’s only in the last ten years that the 74-year-old’s pastoral scenes of times gone by have begun to receive praise from local as well as international artists.
Le Thi grew up in a village in the central province of Thanh Hoa. She says she had a passion for paintings since she was very young. However, life in the countryside during war time prevented her from indulging in her passion.
Thi grew up, got married and raised her children alone after her husband was conscripted to join the army. The young mother tried her hand at many different jobs, as varied as weaving carpets, making noodles, selling drinks, and even working as a construction worker to earn a living.
Like most women of her time, Thi devoted herself to supporting her children and helping her country during war. Finally, when peace came and her kids grew up, she was free to pursue her own interests.
“Better late than never,” Thi says, adding she feels very lucky she got the chance to paint at all.
Thi’s journey into painting wasn’t a conventional one. Her first introduction was via a book on how to teach yourself painting that she found on her granddaughter’s bookshelf. First she drew a circle, a square, and then a jar, a box, and a face.
“I have become familiar with the rules of painting step by step through my work,” she says.
She also tried to learn by copying other paintings.
“The first time I did that was in 1994 when I borrowed a book of paintings by Isaac Levitan and copied 32 of them in just one month. I learned a lot from his techniques about composition and colours.”
The novice was learning quickly and churned out hundreds of paintings in her first six years. One of her biggest influences has been scenes from her childhood, like rice fields, pagodas, buffalo and fish ponds.
“I mainly draw based on my memories, but I also draw things from the present day,” she says.
“Ideas normally come very easily, for example, when I watched a video my grandson made at Cua Lo Beach in Nghe An Province, there was an old woman trying to catch oysters under the blazing summer sun. The image inspired me to paint Vẫn còn- (Still exists).”
Today, art has taken over Thi’s life. In her house in Ha Dong District, Hanoi, which is also her studio and exhibition space, paintings are everywhere both finished and unfinished, hanging on the walls or stacked in corners.
Le Thi says she owes her success to her son who, more than anyone else, has helped his mother fulfill her dream. In 1982, when going on a business trip to Russia, he sent her a box of coloured pencils.
“I always get support and encouragement from all my family,” she says.
“My children bought me this house to work and show my paintings and my granddaughter takes me on trips to seek inspiration.”
During the last few years, Le Thi has not produced many pieces because of health problems, but she is always willing to welcome visitors to her house and talk about her work.
