Teacher peels cajuput bark into 200 thin layers to make unique paintings

Mr. Nguyen Van Canh (55 years old, living in Tam Nong district, Dong Thap province) is an elementary school art teacher, with a side job making cajuput bark paintings.

Mr. Canh’s small house is located right on the edge of the flooded forest of Tram Chim National Park. Half of the house is on the water and also serves as his painting studio.

Mr. Canh makes paintings entirely from cajuput bark (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).

Mr. Canh shared that as a teacher, he has 3 months of summer vacation and free weekends, so he often takes advantage of making paintings to satisfy his passion and earn extra income. His house is next to the forest, so he goes into the forest to find available natural materials to make paintings, the theme is also natural scenery.

"Wading into the forest, I can get reed grass, cajuput bark or wood chips to make paintings, the finished products are also very beautiful.

"Whenever I go into the forest, I remember natural scenes such as cranes flying, cranes foraging, or the sun casting shadows on the forest, and use that as the theme for my work," Mr. Canh said.

A piece of rough cajuput bark that Mr. Canh just got from the forest (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).

According to Mr. Canh, among the many materials he found, he found that cajuput bark had the most special qualities. From a thick sheet of bark peeled from an ancient cajuput tree, he separated about 200 layers, each layer had a different color, from black, gray, white, moss green to pink.

Since realizing the superiority of cajuput bark, for the past 13 years, Mr. Canh has focused on making paintings with this material.

"Each time I go into the forest, I only take a piece of cajuput bark, about 2 square meters wide. The raw cajuput bark is already dry and waterproof, so there is no need to dry it.

From this bark, I can separate about 200 layers of natural paper, equivalent to a very large amount of material, enough for 15 days, to make 10 large paintings of size 0.8x1m. I will use the torn bark layers to make small paintings, and when they are used up, I will go back to the forest to get more," Mr. Canh shared.

The layers of eucalyptus bark thinner than paper were peeled off by Mr. Canh (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).

To date, Mr. Canh has made more than 3,000 paintings from cajuput bark. There are two works, "Crane Calling Spring" and "Dance in the New Sunshine", which have been ordered by many customers, and Mr. Canh has made them in large quantities. The products have been recognized by the Dong Thap provincial authorities as typical local products.

Mr. Canh’s products are often ordered as gifts by businesses or bought by tourists as souvenirs. Depending on the size, each painting costs from 100,000 VND to 3 million VND.

Mr. Canh said that because it is an art product, it can only be done when inspired, not "industrial" so it is difficult to say how long it takes to complete a work. There are paintings that he can complete in one session, but sometimes it takes 10 days to complete one.

Crane feathers, flowers and clouds are all made by Mr. Canh from cajuput bark with natural colors (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).

The biggest order Mr. Canh ever received was for 100 small paintings. Every day, the number of customers ordering paintings is still steady, both domestic and international.

"I also get the paint and glue from the forest. International tourists who come to see me work are always interested. They are pleased because the product is completely natural.

There was a company that wanted to order me to make paintings in large quantities and regularly to sell to Europe. Although I was very sorry, I had to refuse because I couldn't finish them in time and couldn't hire anyone to help me," Mr. Canh said.

Mr. Canh and his favorite painting (Photo: Nguyen Cuong).

"Born and living in the middle of Tram Chim forest, I want to make paintings of red-crowned cranes from cajuput bark. These are all typical features of my hometown. These paintings will follow visitors far and wide, introducing to all directions the landscape and people of Dong Thap," Mr. Canh confided.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/thay-giao-boc-vo-tram-thanh-200-lop-mong-lam-tranh-doc-dao-20240804005714664.htm