Quan Tho Nature's Painter

The robust impressionist paintings of Quan Tho blossomed out of an extremely happy and motivated childhood. The Doi Mai Anh Domaine de Marie where he was raised as an orphan gave him his first impetus in creative painting. Soon the gardening the convent was his studio. The beautiful billy setting of Dalat with its lake and mountain, its pines and rugged landscapes, its own energetic pace of life endlessly titillated his imagination.

1975-1990 was Quan Tho's he most prolific period in his whole artistic career to date. He worked relentlessly painting nature in general and the landscape in particular. Working on the spot, he made wide ranging discoveries related to his visual experiences as well as to the painting techniques. His mainstream style of painting - characterized by his in depth investigation of the visual phenomenon in nature, a paroling approach and resulting raw power emerged.

In 1993 Quan Tho (by now based in Sai Gon) surprised his art patrons and friends with a new series of paintings with an unexpected subject matter and techniques. Surrealist in style, the paintings depicted his personal crisis, agony, and eventually his reflections on the fate evil and dilemma of life. The series possesses imaginative power and commanding technical execution.