Lai Liên is an artist of Vietnamese origin, who arrived on the banks of the Loire in 2003, before settling in Amboise ten years later. Passionate about French art for years, she practices Vietnamese lacquer, a traditional technique from her country, which she studied at the Hanoi School of Fine Arts.
“This school was created in 1930 by two teachers. They were former fine arts students from Paris. They proposed to use the traditional technique to make artistic lacquer, explains Lai Liên. In 2002, she obtained a diploma in “technical specialty of traditional Vietnamese lacquer painting”.
A memoir on the Lascaux cave
To obtain her diploma, she wrote a dissertation on the Lascaux cave. “I learned this primitive art during my first years at the Hanoi Fine Arts School and received a prize in a student competition for having created an abstract painting representing prehistoric drawings. It’s an art with very warm and natural colors”specifies the artist.
This dissertation, among the best presented, allowed him to benefit from a scholarship to come to France. “France is a choice, because I love French art. In Vietnam, there were French painters, and when I saw them, I dreamed of going to France. ».
She settled in Touraine in 2003 to continue her studies at the Tours School of Fine Arts. In 2006, she obtained her national higher diploma in plastic expression.
Lai Liên moved to Amboise in 2012. “It was a bit by chance that I arrived in Amboise. I discovered a city where there is a lot of cultural activity and since then, I have felt good there. »
A unique art in France?
Lai Liên masters the techniques of oil painting, silk painting and rice paper painting. “But what visitors appreciate the most when I do exhibitions or fairs are the Vietnamese lacquerware, because it’s something you don’t often see here,” specifies Lai Liên who adds: “To this day, I do not know of any other artists in France who practice this art. »
Although she has a passion for French art, she continues to paint scenes from Vietnam which are always in her heart.
