Quang N'Guyen

My name is Quang-Hai Nguyen. My first name means “bright sea”.

Quang: luminous
Hai: sea

When you choose this first name for your child, it is to wish him a bright future and great success.

I was born on July 8, 1946 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

I am the youngest of a family of five children.

I remember when I was little, I loved to go swimming in the rivers of my native village. At that time, my village was called Hà Tây, now it is part of the city of Hanoi.

As a child, I dreamed of becoming a painter.

I studied Visual Arts and obtained a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the School of Fine Arts in Vietnam. Then, I worked for the Department of Heritage Preservation and Historic Monuments. I have devoted my life to my art, I am a painter and a member of the Fine Arts Association of Vietnam. I sell my paintings and I do exhibitions.

Vietnamese lacquerware is my favorite leisure activity. This requires a lot of precision and patience, because the realization of a lacquer can be spread over several months. You have to apply many coats of lacquer, let them dry and sand them each time. In general, the painters work several lacquers at the same time and they are made help by craftsmen lacquerers.

Vietnamese traditional music is my favorite music.

The gold in Vietnamese lacquer is my favorite color.

My favorite dishes are made with fish from the river in my home village, such as Vietnamese stewed fish or fish soup.

The smell I prefer is that of country life, like the smell of the rice field in the morning, the smell of the harvest or the smell of rice straw smoke.