Unique and unusual technique: Transforming waste products into... works of art.

Amidst the neglected materials of Hue's rice paddies, art teacher Nguyen Thi Hue (Ho Van Tu Secondary School, Huong Tra Ward) has painstakingly transformed piles of rice husks into unique paintings.

"A PALETTE OF COLORS" FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE

The village by the Bo River – where Hue was born and raised – is a fertile agricultural area. After each rice harvest, the mills discard huge piles of rice husks. Although they don't cause pollution, no one bothers to pay attention to them. But for Hue, this neglect evokes a sense of regret: "With so much waste, if we knew how to utilize it, we could surely do something better."

The opportunity arose in 2020, when the school organized a youth creative competition. A year prior, she had already made vases, handbags, statues, picture frames, and decorative items from straw. This time, she wanted to try a different material.

"While looking at rice husk paintings online, I suddenly thought of the piles of steaming rice husks after each harvest. Why don't I try making paintings with rice husks? I started experimenting from there," Ms. Hue recounted.

Ms. Hue began her journey quietly collecting rice husks from rice mills and bringing them back to study how to create colors. As an art teacher with 20 years of experience, transforming the original yellow color from cooked rice grains into different shades of rice husks wasn't difficult for her. But the challenge lay in patience, because creating a picture from tiny rice husks required the artist to work tirelessly all day. Ms. Hue explained that you can't just spread glue on the surface and then scatter the rice husks on it. Doing so would make the picture look messy and certainly wouldn't create the desired visual effect. Therefore, when making rice husk paintings, Ms. Hue had to use a pen with glue already applied to it to attach each rice husk to the background.

Ms. Hue's rice husk paintings have muted colors, like the fields of Hue . PHOTO: HOANG SON

The smooth color transition of the rice husk gives the painting depth. PHOTO: HOANG SON

Ms. Hue has a unique way of creating a "color palette" for her paintings. When she collects rice husks, she meticulously selects each husk with different shades. However, they are usually around yellow, varying only in intensity. To create more vibrant colors, she came up with the idea of ​​roasting the husks in a hot pan. "Roasting lightly results in a golden brown. Roasting heavily turns it a reddish-brown. Burning it until it's charred creates a deep, dark black," she explains. These seemingly simple transformations from the roasting process open up a special color palette for her paintings. These aren't the bright colors of paint, but the colors of the countryside, of fields, and of harvest seasons.

The first painting that Ms. Hue completed was Thien Mu Pagoda, followed by works such as young women in ao dai dresses by Trang Tien Bridge, lotus paintings, and Buddha paintings... all extremely exquisite. Taking these works to competitions from the district (formerly) level to the provincial level, Ms. Hue and her students won high prizes.

CONQUER NEW LEVELS

Ms. Hue said that making rice husk paintings isn't difficult. Besides the readily available materials, the tools are also simple: just a base paper, a fine-tipped pen, and white glue to stick the rice husks together. Add passion and patience, and you can create beautiful paintings. However, to give the paintings soul, the artist needs aesthetic talent. While anyone can sketch, creating a vibrant, deep, and smoothly transitioning painting requires technical knowledge. "For example, with lotus paintings, simply choosing roasted rice husks and assembling them onto paper will make it very difficult to create a beautiful painting. Especially the tiny veins on the lotus leaves, which are inherently difficult to depict. I have researched and learned this technique from the method of inlaying eggshells in lacquer painting," Ms. Hue said.

After sketching, each rice husk is glued on with white glue. PHOTO: HOANG SON

A painting of lotus flowers made from rice husks. PHOTO: HOANG SON

Ms. Hue's painting of lotuses, created on large sheets of paper, has garnered much admiration from viewers thanks to the intricate details that only shredded rice husks can achieve. She recounts that when creating the painting, she was quite hesitant about how to handle the lotus leaf veins. Then, an idea suddenly flashed through her mind: "roast the rice husks and then press them onto a piece of glue." The method of scattering the rice husk fragments on the surface to create leaf veins and light and dark spots without using any artificial colors created a unique visual effect for the painting. "The loose, fragmented strands unintentionally became the beautiful leaf veins. Even the lotus stem with its tiny thorns is vividly portrayed," she said.

During her exploration of this material, Ms. Hue also experimented with peanut shells, creating several paintings. She also considered cutting beer and soda cans into small square pieces, like colored ceramics, to create paintings, thus utilizing metal waste and reducing pollution. In the future, besides exploring other ways to incorporate rice husks into paintings, Ms. Hue said she will continue researching different applications of rice husks, such as table lamps and souvenir products.

"So, how much do you sell each painting for?" I asked. Ms. Hue said that after many years of painting with rice husks, she only enters them in competitions or gives them away. If someone really likes them, she sells a few paintings for 300,000 to 500,000 VND each. Ms. Hue considers rice husks a waste product, so she only makes a profit from her labor and, more importantly, contributes to spreading the message of environmental protection, utilizing readily available resources to create useful products.

"Two students used to make very beautiful paintings from rice husks. Seeing the children so engrossed in rice husk painting, I sometimes think: 'If only I had the time and money to develop the art of making rice husk paintings so that children from disadvantaged backgrounds could come and earn extra income, that would be wonderful,'" Ms. Hue shared. (to be continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ky-nghe-doc-la-bien-phe-pham-thanh-tac-pham-185251120213002951.htm