Preserving the homeland's crafts
In 2018, with a passion for painting, after graduating from the Fine Arts Pedagogy major (Dong Thap University) 1 year, with a small capital, Ms. Ho Thanh Thao (29 years old, Vinh Long province) started to accept many types of multi-material paintings such as etchings, oil paintings, collage paintings, scrap fabric paintings...
About 2 years later, Ms. Thao decided to find a new direction for herself and boldly chose Mang Thit red pottery as the material for her paintings. This idea came from the desire to contribute to preserving the traditional craft village of her hometown.
“Over 100 years old, the brick and pottery making profession in Mang Thit district (Vinh Long province) is facing the risk of extinction. This has inspired me to create works of art from red pottery. Through this, I hope to create souvenirs with unique characteristics of my homeland. At the same time, contribute to promoting Vinh Long tourism in general and the red pottery craft village in particular,” Ms. Thao confided.
From that unique idea and desire, in addition to the theme of landscapes, rivers and orchards, Ms. Thao recreates many places, cultural and historical relics in Vinh Long... on her products. In particular, she also accepts portrait painting on ceramic background and receives positive feedback from customers.
Overcoming difficulties, earning millions
In the early days of implementing the idea, Ms. Thao encountered many difficulties. Accordingly, she had to spend time researching and researching to come up with the most complete formula, suitable for painting on red ceramic background.
According to Ms. Thao, the painting process is also very elaborate and complicated, from choosing the location, sketching to painting multiple layers to get the desired color. However, it is this challenge that attracts Ms. Thao to stick with ceramic painting for a long time.
“A beautiful ceramic painting requires putting the sketched image into the painting to balance with the ceramic shape. In particular, the difficulty of ceramic painting is having to paint many layers to get the beautiful color as desired. It usually takes me about 3-5 hours to complete a product. I have tried many genres of painting, but in the end, ceramic painting has a special attraction that makes me stick with it for a long time,” Ms. Thao shared.
Currently, red ceramic paintings are sold for 250,000 - 400,000 VND/product. Every day, Ms. Thao completes 2 - 3 products, earning from 500,000 to more than 1 million VND.
In addition to painting and creating new works, Ms. Thao also opens free vocational training classes for young people who share the same passion for painting on red ceramics. In addition, she also enthusiastically guides nearly 20 students of all levels to paint on wood, pebbles and especially Vinh Long red ceramic products.
Mr. Tran Cong Khanh - Secretary of Vinh Long Provincial Youth Union - said that Ms. Thao has contributed to the consumption of red ceramic products of her hometown, creating jobs for students through painting. These works of art on red ceramic background have highlighted the images of daily life, culture and history of her hometown.
