AHN NGUYEN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST
AHN NGUYEN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST
TLSE Art Contributor, Kate Swinson of lifestyle and art label Native Swinson, shares with us her interview and musings with Ahn. Ahn lives and paints on Sydney’s South Coast, with her partner and four children. Says Ahn, “My work is inspired by life; daily moments, human activity, small observations. Often, I am also inspired by other art - the composition in a photograph, a line of prose or poetry, a still from a film.”
[KATE] Looking at the paintings of Anh Nguyen I am immersed in loose beautiful brushstrokes creating scenes I know, places I am familiar with, things I feel I have experienced. But, I don’t know these places, this garden, these people. This is the magic of Anh’s work, it has a sense of an old friend. As a child Anh loved to draw and paint, she was a keeper of sketch books and a writer of poems, busily documenting her world and her experience in it. Today, her artwork appears to be a grown-up extension of these childhood sketchbooks. Her paintings could be pages torn from a visual diary, personal daily reflections in paint. Impressively Anh, as yet, has never been to art school instead she experienced a wave of creativity when she become a mother. Invigorated by the change of pace in her daily routine and influenced by examining her world in a new way. Anh found herself with the desire to remember moments in time, perhaps the sense of time passing has greater force as you see babies grow and change so quickly. As a mother and primary carer, Anh feels she has more time to contemplate and observe her immediate world, although conversely she confesses she also has less time as anyone with experience with young children will understand For some women Motherhood can be a catalyst of determination to follow ones true passions. Many women I have spoken to talk of gaining a redefined sense of focus after they became mothers, I know for me this has been the way. Perhaps this is partly because a mentoring role is placed upon women by the very nature of motherhood, to show your children what can be done. For me, the importance of creativity is paramount. Anh paints with her instinct.
TLSE EIGHTY-ONE / 81
