Vietnamese Silk Painting

Silk painting is the traditional Vietnamese art of silk painting which originates from painting and drawing on home made rice paper. Today this art has become famous around the world for its simple poetic themes and vibrant colors. Vietnamese artists find the technique to be a unique way to create mystique in their paintings.

The Vietnamese style of silk painting emphasizes softness, elegance and has a flexibility of style. The success of a silk painting very much depends on the quality of the silk. Differently with other kinds of paintings, the silk canvas are usually not painted. The Vietnamese traditional silk painting style tends to use the silk canvas directly as the background of the painting.

Vietnamese silk paintings typically showcase the countryside, landscapes, pagodas, historical events or scenes of daily life. The colors are used delicately with the canvas to make Vietnamese silk paintings. The delicate white color found in the sky, water, or human portrait, is the color of silk. The color of silk is well known to describe human figure in the paintings of many famous vietnamese artists. Delicate color and silk background give the paintings such an harmony with the nature. Whatever style they follow, silk painters must have an intimate knowledge of the material and fully exploit its shininess and its attractiveness. Painting silk is full of changing and unexpected characteristics, and a wrong stroke of the brush is irreversible.

Silk represents an important language of Vietnamese painting after lacquer. Its capacity of absorption and dilution given to the works an impression of mellowness spreading through the woofs and wefts of silk, adding a certain vibration to the forms and colours.

Vietnamese silk painting has its own unique character and colours that are distinctly different from those from ancient China and feudal Japan. Each painting is a great description of the beautiful nature and talented skills of the Vietnamese. By using contemporary colours, Vietnamese silk painting has won the hearts of many art lovers nationally and Internationally.