The person who "breathes life" into That Son stone

- Seven Mountains stone painting is a type of painting that uses granite materials from the Seven Mountains region of An Giang . The person who created this unique type of stone painting is Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nam (born in 1967, residing in Cai Dau town, Chau Phu).

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nam is a music teacher at Cai Dau Secondary School, a musician, poet, and a member of the Provincial Association of Literature and Arts. As an art enthusiast, in addition to playing music, Mr. Nam also composes poetry, writes calligraphy, etc. However, in the field of painting, he is an "outsider", but the stone paintings he creates make his friends extremely surprised by their sharp, vivid, and meticulous lines. The first stone painting made from Bay Nui granite was created by Mr. Nam in 2006. Following in the following years, works of calligraphy, landscapes, portraits, etc. made from stone with 2 black and white tones were also completed by him.

Talking about the process of starting the art of making stone paintings, Mr. Nam shared: “I always wondered why the stones of my hometown were only used in construction or making stone mortars, but not used to create works of art. Thinking so, I tried using stones for sculpture but failed, then I continued to learn about art products made from stones. Until I saw Luc Yen gemstone paintings, I came up with the idea of ​​using An Giang stone materials to make paintings”. When he had formed the idea, Mr. Nam began to learn about the method of making stone paintings but could not find any instructions, so he decided to do it himself. Taking advantage of his free time during the summer holidays, Mr. Nam went to many mountainous places in Tri Ton district, Tinh Bien and Chau Doc city... to find materials to make paintings.

Mr. Nam said: “Because the color of granite in An Giang is not as sparkling as precious stones, I decided to choose black and white as the main color for my paintings. However, finding pure black or white stones is not easy. I went to many places to collect stones of suitable colors, then imagined the work to be done and made tools for the stages of making paintings.” Painting a painting is very laborious, making paintings from stone materials is even more laborious. After finding stones of satisfactory colors, Mr. Nam crushed the stones into small pieces, put them in a mortar and pestle, used a sieve to sort the grains, then used water to clean the stone grains, and dried them... During the research stage of making paintings, besides the time he spent making music or teaching, Mr. Nam stayed at home almost all day, devoting all his mind to experimenting with stone paintings.

By “giving birth” to paintings made from granite, Mr. Nam has contributed to enriching the cultural appearance of his hometown An Giang, creating a unique art product called Seven Mountains stone paintings. From the black and white color blocks of pebbles collected from the That Son area, Mr. Nam has “magically” transformed them into vivid paintings, allowing viewers to recall memories of the countryside of An Giang. However, in recent years, due to poor health, Mr. Nam has not been able to continue traveling around the Seven Mountains area to find stones to make paintings, and the process of making stone paintings is extremely difficult, so the number of paintings produced is limited.

Normally, to complete a stone painting takes a long time, is difficult, requires meticulousness, so very few authors exploit this type of painting using stone materials. Having a chance to develop this type of stone painting, Mr. Nam has devoted a lot of effort to research and produce beautiful works, although only using 2 colors black and white, they are extremely harmonious, simple and realistic...

MY LINH

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/van-hoa/tac-gia-tac-pham/nguoi-thoi-hon-vao-da-that-son-a413974.html