Bilingual sketch book on Hanoi published

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - A Vietnamese-English language book featuring more than 200 sketches of Hanoi’s streets along with emotional essays about the capital city has been published.

Titled Pho Co Ha Noi - Ky Hoa và Hoi Uc (Hanoi’s Old Quarter - Sketches & Memories) by Wings Books of the Kim Dong Publishing House, it is a collection from 60 authors, writers, architects, amateur and professional painters of Urban Sketchers Hanoi group.

Pictures in the book have been drawn with various materials like water colours, pencils and wax.

Painter Nguyen Thanh Phong explores the beauty of handicraft villages and streets in ancient Hanoi, while architect Nguyen Quang Minh loses himself in charming French-style villas, writer Nguyen Truong Quy describes inspirations for drawing Hanoi’s streets by painters in the past.

“The spontaneous approach is quite suitable to natural characteristics of Hanoi’s Old Quarter featuring surprising and unique beauty of street space,” commented architect and researcher Nguyen Quoc Thong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Architects’ Association.

“Sketching is the quickest way to capture images in various materials, the initial step of creating a painting,” he said. “The sketch book on Hanoi’s street is the first of its kind. Moreover, the authors are of all walks of life and ages (the youngest is only eight years old) has brought the book a unique feature.”

Established in 2016 with nearly 4,000 members, the Urban Sketchers Hanoi group has hosted various painting event to snap images of Hanoi, especially the old lifestyles, old buildings, which are gradually disappearing in the process of urbanisation.

In August, the group was recognised for its activities in the category of Actions for Hanoi in the system of Bui Xuan Phai – For the Love of Hanoi Awards hosted by The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports and Culture) daily./.