A New Talent

It will be a nice surprise for art-lovers when they visit the gallery owned by Thu Ha at No.142 Dong Khoi Street these days. This time this much-frequented art gallery shows, instead of works signed by well-known artists, more than 30 paintings by Thu Ha herself.

Thu Ha confided, ''I felt an irresistible impulse inside me. It urged me to paint. So I took up painting. The oil Flowers was done in such a state of mind.''

After this first one, the gracious owner of Tu Do (Liberty) art gallery quietly devoted herself to work, nights and days. And these days of December, more than 30 paintings, the result of many days of hard work, are unveiled to the public.

Choe, a well-known cartoonist, has this to say about Thu Ha's paintings, “Its like meeting again our innocent childhood, meeting again the tranquility of a primitive forest. And how we want to soar up into the sky, always higher and higher. It's like a stream, murmuring and wandering. It's not a straight canal. In our life there are times we want to be innocent.”

Tran Huu Luc seemed going further when talking about the impulse inciting Thu Ha, who not long ago used to contemplate art works, has stepped into the field of artistic creation. “Days after days, colors, lines, the smell of turpentine, of paint, of pigments, and of canvas led the owner of an art gallery into the world of paintings, or more correctly, helped her to return to the world of paintings. Her paintings seem to guide us back to the motherland, the sweet and peaceful motherland, a retrospect of the past. And we can find here A Whiff of the Old Fragrance, Spring Rain, and other long-forgotten memories. ln only more than a year, Thu Ha has succeeded getting used to painting, and with what innocence, naivety, freshness and openness.”

Like the name of the art gallery, Liberty, Thu Ha is not tied up by painting. “I paint when I like, when I feel I am in high spirits or when I am depressed,” she said.

Thu Ha is planning to paint more because she thinks her exhibition is a success, nine paintings were sold on the first two days. Moreover, she want to earn a “good sum” to be able to take part in an exhibition in Australia in April 1992.