CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN, DON’T PLATEAU!
According to Tran, it’s good to push yourself with experimentation, and strive to learn new skills
“Doing experimental paintings can help you grow artistically and keep your style from plateauing. Every so often, I try to work on a painting study to learn about new tools, techniques, and figure out how to incorporate what I’ve learned into my professional work.
In doing these studies, I’ve found fun ways to merge my love for nature by integrating pressed flowers into my portrait paintings. It enables me to take the time to explore different colour palettes such as bright pink hair as well as drawing techniques, which has paved way to my linear drawing style. These studies are meant for happy accidents and mistakes, so I’m free from the pressure of creating something that’s perfect or finished.
Taking time to do personal work is another way to elevate your art. It’s a chance to think about your own narrative and what you want to say with your art. Over time, it’s helped me solidify my visual language as well as identifying reoccurring motifs, such as the small wooden boats that often find themselves in many of my paintings. This is also how I found my love for the ‘larger-than-life’ theme where I depict giantesses roaming around blue rooftop houses.
Dedicating a few hours a week to work on a study or personal piece refines your process and help rekindle your love for art.”
Being a freelancer for more than a decade, Tran isn’t much phased by the isolation brought about by the Covid-19 crisis. But it has meant the lines between commercial and personal work have been blurred, leaving her “restless and less inspired”. Is there an art community that can help? “Absolutely,” she tells us. “The art community has a special place in my heart for what it’s done for my career, and it’s heartening to see that it’s shared vital resources to help artists who have lost work find financial help.”
Yet, as we all know, things may get more problematic before they get better. “I anticipate a lull in the rate of clients looking to commission art, since company budgets will be cut or terminated,” Tran muses, “but it’ll revert over time.” And ever the positive, “I see artists focusing more on developing their own IP and relying less on commercial projects.”
FROM FANTASY TO REALITY
For Tran, who recently released her first art book called Ambedo, it’s also been a time for self-reflection, looking back to that flight to the US and the following years of experimental trial and error. “My concepts used to be much more weird and surreal when I first started my profession,” she reflects, “but nowadays my work carries a realistic tone, seems more grounded – less of the odd eyes in tree stumps and floating gold shapes!”
She’s even considering revisiting some of the “crazy motifs and lightlyrendered figures that I used to illustrate.” But there’s been certain themes that haven’t changed. “My family and our story has always been on the peripherals of my paintings, as well as my artistic journey,” she tells us. “They play a huge role in the narratives of my personal work, and I tend to leave little crumbs of my family’s struggle and hope in my paintings.”
My family and our story has always been on the peripherals of my paintings, as well as my artistic journey