As a painter pursuing the Impressionism style Pham Luan has always wanted to travel to places that the great Impressionist masters visited before, to see for himself the scenery that captivated them decades ago.
Pham Luan in Venice 2002
The first opportunity came in 2002 when he visited Venice and a few other Italian cities. One of Pham Luan's most admired Impressionists, Monet, visited Venice in 1908 and was drawn to the uniqueness of the city. Pham Luan, like Monet and many other artists before him, was also captivated by the city of Venice with its waterways, bridges and alleys. He was so mesmerised by Venice that later that year in October, when he went to Belgium and Luxembourg for a group exhibition, he made plans to visit Venice again. On this long trip to Europe, Pham Luan also visited London, Paris and Giverny where Monet painted his water lilies series. Pham Luan absorbed sceneries that he could only read about before. When Pham Luan came back after that trip, he poured his emotions and impressions of those cities into his paintings. He painted passionately about this new subject. The results were two exhibitions in which Pham Luan showcased his new series of paintings about cities abroad. One was a show in Hong Kong featuring Pham Luan's paintings about Venice. The other show was entitled "Autumn Memories: Pham Luan's Paintings of Hanoi and Beyond" which featured Pham Luan's paintings about different European cities such as London, Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Giverny.
Pham Luan in Giverny (France) - October 2002
Since then, Pham Luan has painted many more paintings about sceneries in other countries. Whenever he travels to a foreign destination, Pham Luan is always eager to discover the unique beauty of that place. It seems that Pham Luan sees everything through his artistic eyes. I remember one time when I went with him to Central Park in New York. We were taking photographs of the scenery there. I was just taking pictures as a tourist but he was taking the pictures as if he were capturing the beautiful images that he saw as an artist. To this day Pham Luan continues to draw inspiration from his travels abroad and the subject is one that he enjoys very much.
Pham Luan in Padstow (Cornwall - England) - 2008