VietNamNet Bridge – A visit to Helene Kling’s house and also her studio-art school in HCMC’s District 2 to attend a reception for her upcoming exhibition Fer De Reve (Dreams of Iron) next month helped me discover a French artist with a deep love for Vietnam, her adopted country.

French artist Helene Kling poses next to one of her latest artworks.

“I want to show the passion that Vietnam has instilled in me. I paint my impressions to capture this country. Through my paintings people can feel the soul of Vietnam and my love for this country. Vietnam has a beauty and constant change that makes it so special,” says Kling, who has for the past 17 years lived and worked in Vietnam, where “every tear that fell in happiness, joy or sadness has instantly found its expression through my paintings and has been translated in color and material”.

Kling left Paris in 1996 to live in Vietnam. She then quit her job to follow her first passion for photography then became a professional painter with her forte of oil on canvas. “I have witnessed Vietnam in the past when there were not many motorcycles and cabs and people were not living in such a busy pace of life like nowadays,” Kling said.

In 2007, the artist produced ‘Dragon Tears’ to share her first ten years in Vietnam through paintings and in 2011 published a second book ‘My Art Beat for Vietnam’. She has held a number of solo exhibitions in HCMC featuring Vietnam’s landscapes in the North, Sapa, the Mekong Delta, and especially women.

Walking around her three-storey house, people can see the images of women of all nationalities and of all ages that seem to tell their own stories to viewers.

“My artistic research covers both a reflection of a woman’s image and the situation of women in different societies. I have lived in Vietnam since 1996 and I have seen the evolution of women and their roles in this country. Vietnamese women are the essence of the land; they are its beauty, its strength and its intelligence. A woman is a mother, a daughter; is active, loving and a lover, but still more or less used. In certain countries she is an image without a spirit used for its beauty, in others she is hidden because of her spirit and her beauty. Through my art, I decided to represent women in all her forms,” Kling explains.

Women are also the theme for her latest exhibition from November 14-18 at the City Exhibition House in District 1. The new collection uses recycled materials and was started two years ago by Kling as the beginning of a new series of research, in which she has turned to three-dimensional materials such as corrugated iron, cardboard and other waste materials.

Apart from her great passion for making art, Kling has opened painting classes for both adults and children since 2000. In class she inspires and instructs her students of all ages to mix colors, how to use acrylic, gesso, gold leaf, or different media, painting techniques and expression. Once a year, Kling exhibits her artists’ works.

“I think Vietnam, specifically HCMC, is where an artist like me can do whatever I want and to earn a living. I can paint, sell my art pieces and teach people. I have had chances to meet many local artists who are really talented but most of them are too shy to express themselves. I love the paintings by Hanoi-based Le Duc Tung and Phuong Quoc Tri from HCMC.”

Those who are interested in Kling’s paintings can visit her studio/gallery at 189/C1 Nguyen Van Huong Street, Thao Dien Ward in District 2. Budding artists can attend her classes which run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday (for adults) and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (for children).

For further information, access www.helenekling.com or contact the artist on 0903 955 780, email: hk.painter@gmail.com.

Source: SGT