Artists Karine Guillermin from France and Elena Osuna from the US are jointly holding an exhibition titled “Visions of nature” at The Hummingbird Cafe in District 1, HCMC, introducing their dedicated and colorful paintings that show how humans observe nature in a romantic manner.

Some of the artworks at the exhibition - Photo: Courtesy of the organizer

For Guillermin, the meditative process in which she paints the patterns of flowers, plants, birds and aquatic molluscs brings her closer to their spirits and sounds. Her art is hypnotic and evocative as the words of Rousseau: “Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and to paint what I see.”

On the other hand, Osuna seems to be removing herself from any romantic attachments to the natural world to see that within it, the dangerous and the beautiful things exist indifferently. “I want to show that the natural world is indifferent. It is we who often can’t resist imbuing nature with a touch of romance,” she said. 

Together, the works convey a rich picture, for viewers to meditate, ponder and reflect on their own visions of nature.

Born in Villeurbanne in France in 1975, Karine Guillermin currently divides her time between her home country, Japan and Vietnam, and her works are a mirror of that.

French expressiveness and Japanese-inspired detailing collide to become dreamily compelling compositions: the petals of a large marshmallow flower, aquatic mollusks loitering in the air, or a rainbow bursting into life.

Elena Osuna was born in North Carolina in the US in 1969. She studied fine art with a focus on print-making and book arts. She is now concentrating mainly on realist paintings and drawings.

Saigon Times