Artist Tran Thanh Thuc: Listening to fabric tell stories

Under her magical hands, the details on the fabric are carefully cut and blended together, creating emotional works of art.

Magic hands

Graduated from one of the most prestigious schools in Vietnam - Yet Kieu Fine Arts School, after nearly 10 years of training in a professional environment, experiencing all the materials of painting, surprisingly, Tran Thanh Thuc "determined" her artistic path to be fabric cutting - something she did not learn in school. It was also a lucky coincidence.

Why did you choose a rather special path: creating paintings from scraps of fabric - a path like no other, quite laborious, and difficult when each painting is unique?

Tran Thanh Thuc said that in the 80s, she had to save money to buy fabric. She was “familiar” with almost all the fabric stores in all the markets in Hanoi , wherever there were the most “unique” fabrics, no matter how far away, she was there.

Wandering around, meticulously examining each piece of fabric, bringing it home and choosing the necessary patterns, cutting them separately, sometimes taking only one detail from the whole piece, she spent money buying countless pieces of fabric of all kinds, filling every corner of the house.

Her passion for creating fabric paintings dates back to the subsidy period, when the price of a piece of fabric was enough to cover a few meals, but she saved on many things, just to serve her passion for buying fabric to make paintings.

For more than 40 years, she has been immersed in and playing with fabric. She said: “Don’t ask me how long it takes me to create a piece of work, it’s hard to measure, it could be a few months, it could be a few years…”.

Hoi An through fabric paintings by artist Tran Thanh Thuc.

All the unique details cut from the fabric pieces are assembled by Tran Thanh Thuc to create a complete work of art. What makes the difference and uniqueness in this female artist's fabric cutting paintings?

Currently, artist Tran Thanh Thuc is one of the leaders in Vietnamese contemporary art in fabric cutting. To create a painting with depth, certain techniques are needed. With experience after many periods of creation, Tran Thanh Thuc created a unique fabric layering technique to create depth for the work.

In particular, she never sketches or uses oil or acrylic paints to interact with the fabric. Only fabric and glue, Tran Thanh Thuc does not use any other means or materials. How to make the work come alive like 3D, and have soul, is perhaps the depth of the work.

“I use the technique of layering fabric to create depth in the work. The many levels, the colors of the fabric, will create a sky with clouds, the colors are so vivid that you feel the artist is painting a sky, not the fabric itself. If you layer two layers of fabric, you will get a third color. But if the third color is not satisfactory, you will have to use two more layers of fabric, to create a satisfactory sky.”

Each picture is a memory

The female artist does not use a palette of paintbrushes, her tools are only scissors, cloth, glue and her talented hands. But above all, her delicate and passionate artistic intuition makes each painting a creation of that time, that period and that emotion.

3 (4) — In the studio of artist Tran Thanh Thuc.

Artist Tran Thanh Thuc's works often deal with the theme of love for the homeland with beautiful scenes of famous places, from the Ha Giang border to Ca Mau cape, through the North, Central and South regions. "Each painting is like a small story, taking us back to memories. So that viewers can feel the passage of time on each roof, with us through each mountain peak of the mountainous region or in the places I have been" - said artist Tran Thanh Thuc.

Her home and studio have been growing in number, and she is constantly surrounded by canvases and large works. Large-scale paintings require a lot of effort and dedication.

“The more difficult it is, the more I like it, and having pressure is the motivation to create. I always long to portray the mysterious beauty of nature with love and gratitude to mother earth, each layer of color, each layer of terrain gradually appears.

In the countryside, there still resounded the nursery rhymes, the highlands with majestic gray-white mountain peaks spreading their loving arms, protecting the simple stilt houses, and the highlands glowing yellow every season of mustard flowers blooming. Somewhere, children were calling to each other behind haystacks, on stone fences.

The steps are not tired, the dreams are still ahead, the colors of fabric are still charming in the midst of the blazing hot days and the long cold nights.

Each fabric cut painting is born, like a mother after the pregnancy period, the day of blossoming. I sit, like meditating in a small cup, full of fabric, meticulously and patiently testing myself. I and the fabric, rely on each other" - Tran Thanh Thuc narrated at the solo exhibition "Listening to the fabric tell stories", held in early April in Hanoi recently.

Looking at the works of artist Tran Thanh Thuc, the most prominent thing is still the love of life. Every street corner, road, the beauty of flowers, or the story of memories, the love of life, happiness, friendship, love, the life of Vietnamese people all over the homeland, all naturally come into the works of Tran Thanh Thuc.

During the process of composing, just like her love for her hometown Hanoi, she loves Hoi An very much. She shared: “I don’t remember how many times I have been to Hoi An, how many times I have wandered in a daze in front of the ancient houses soaked in the color of time, the green moss roofs every spring that calms people’s hearts. Every time I return from Hoi An, I always pack up my memories of each layer of moss, each patch of sunlight, each wall, small alley, deserted street, the silhouettes of old people with the typical appearance of Hoi An diligently carrying their street vendors on the sidewalks”.

The exhibition "Listening to Fabric Stories" by female artist Tran Thanh Thuc was held at the Museum of Fine Arts (Hanoi) in April 2025.

Hoi An is beautiful, peaceful and ancient. Tran Thanh Thuc said she especially loves the twilight hours in the old town, or early morning when the shops are not open yet.

Then one day, like a pregnant mother, when the memory stirs to come out, the fabric paintings of Hoi An are born. A long scene of the whole street with many houses, roofs with very unique architectural features that if you pay attention, you realize it is not similar to any ancient house in other places. A small peaceful street corner under the bougainvillea trellis, a shop full of sophistication mixed with a bit of luxury...

Loving the art of fabric cutting, having gone through many large and small exhibitions, female artist Tran Thanh Thuc, despite being 60 years old, is still diligently creating. The things she loves most are probably painting and family.

Art is rigorous and serious and she never compromises herself, especially in art. The more she immerses herself in meticulousness, the more she cherishes the beauty of the fabric to give life works from the heart.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/hoa-si-tran-thanh-thuc-nghe-vai-ke-chuyen-3155477.html