ONE YEAR OF PAINTING

 

RIM-001-111G1 ENTER SANDMAN, oil on canvas 155X117 cm, SOMPASONGSACK DOUANGMANIVANH 2022

It's been one year that I started painting. It was one of the best decision I took in my life.

The pandemic was an opportunity to start something different and new. Something challenging.

As an architect, I had a basic knowledge about painting but not sufficient to compete with the greatest painters. 

Last year, august 2021, I started visiting a lot of museums ( Louvre, Orsay, Orangerie, Pompidou, Grenoble, Lyon...), a lot of Art galleries (Gagosian, Pace gallery, Hauser Wirth...) and I bought tons of books in order to deeply understand the Art of painting.

I discovered some extraordinary artists like Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Chaïm Soutine, Edvard Munch, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet...and old Masters like Tintoretto, Titian, Giotto, Greco, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Caravaggio...

I was the one that stayed like 30 minutes at 15 cm in front of the painting. I had so many problems with the security guards ( and alarm....). I was observing the details, the brush strokes, anything that can inspired me. By the way I still didn't understand how Claude Monet did.

Everyone know these artists nevertheless there is a huge difference between knowing and studying them. This is what I did. I studied them deeply, I bought their biography, I went to specific exhibitions that present the Artist.

I travelled a lot, I went to Zürich, Basel, Paris, Oslo, Venice, London, Athens, Vienne... and I still continue.

I went to Art Basel to understand the Art Market and I discovered a new world, totally different from the Architecture world.

I started loving going to museums ( I hated this in the past) and I started loving Art, by Art, I mean Great Art not these shitty tiny abstract paintings that we can see on instagram reels.

I started oil painting by a self portrait. It was not that bad even if it wasn't a masterpiece. I took the habit to paint almost daily. I made more than 50 paintings, from figurative to abstract, and now I am into abstract/figurative. Sometimes I painted five times over the same painting when I was not satisfied.

I learnt my own technique by experimenting (I listened to Francis Bacon's advices). I found my palette and my own style. My technique is absolutely personal and I think no one in this world would do the same. I received messages from God telling me to use that specific tool. Surprisingly it worked very well. 

Art has became my daily obsession and my passion. I realized that I am not far away from the greatest living painters. I just need to practice more. The secret is easy : paint, paint and paint.

I realized that I can do it. And I will do it.`

My best friend told me that he had never seen me so invested into something. My friend was right and he started encouraging me by sending me oil,  brushes and canvases. That support was really important for me.

"Once you start weaving, the Gods will furnish the skein."

I learnt really fast, as if I was already a painter in a past life. I surprised myself when I paint and what is exciting in painting is the idea of discovering something new, unexpected.

Art allows me to discover some hidden parts of my personality, a way to better know myself and a daily source of motivation to become the greatest.

Art has unlimited possibilities and has no limits, this is what makes Art interesting : a perpetual challenge with yourself and with the society.

One year seems like yesterday and at the same time, a decade.

IN ART WE TRUST

SDMVH