“Moon Gate” is a medium size contemporary oil on canvas architectural painting created by Vietnamese artist Dao Hai Phong in 2012. Featuring a bold palette made of deep orange, yellow, red and white colors, delicately accented with blue and green highlights, the painting strikes with its ethereal ambiance. The composition is focused on a grouping of old stone houses with slanted roofs, whose warm tones subtly transition to the exquisite sunset behind. The incandescent quality of the sky is mesmerizing and reveals a certain melancholy, at the same time revealing an undeniable sense of happiness. The roughness of the old stones, along with their colder tones contrast beautifully with the smooth and warm quality of the sky. Framed, this oil on canvas landscape painting is signed lower right. With its rich palette and striking presence, this horizontal Vietnamese painting will be a lovely focal point in any room, whether placed above a sofa table, chest-of-drawers or buffet.

Born in 1965, Dao Hai Phong is one of the preeminent artists of his generation. Having graduated from the Hanoi College of Film and Theater in 1987, Dao went on to work as the Chief of Design at the Vietnam Film Studio. The skills developed in designing studio locations and sets – pulling together elements to convey a particular atmosphere – has served him well as an artist. Because of those skills Dao is extraordinarily successful at conveying life despite the fact that most of his works don’t include actual people. He uses the listing of boats, the shimmering of a tree, the brooding movement in the clouds to convey actual life, without actually representing people. These are not barren landscapes or seashores, but rather towns, villages or houses. Somehow Dao conveys life where there is none to see.

Although he began painting at 6 years old, it was not until Dao was in his late 20’s that he decided to make painting his life. His work is very much characterized by mesmerizing color hotspots that function to showcase the rest of the piece, such as the lights from doors and windows illuminating a dark night or the morning sunshine reflecting off the mist to create a fiery backdrop at a dock.

Since choosing to focus on art, Dao has enjoyed a very successful career, with his works shown and collected across Asia, Europe and North America. In his own words: “Painting brings me great pleasure and my works reflect both my optimism and my melancholy. Each painting carries some of me with it; my joys, hopes and fears…”