Portfolio > ANCIENT PINES

Nguyen’s Ancient Pines series depicts the rock formations and ancient bristlecone pine forests of California’s Eastern Sierra, a landscape with which he has maintained a longstanding and personal engagement. Working from photographs taken in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest near Big Pine, Nguyen approaches painting as an intuitive process. As he explains, “The tree is real, [but] its guidance to create doesn’t have to be exact.” Through a series of artistic decisions, Nguyen transforms observed landscapes into dreamlike, semi-abstract compositions that resemble kaleidoscopic visions, balancing direct observation with imaginative interpretation.
The landscape paintings of Los Angeles artist Hung Viet Nguyen depict specimens from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, an old-growth forest in central California whose trees are more than four thousand years old. Although each specimen is centrally composed, Nguyen creates dynamic relationships among the foreground, middle ground, and background. His heavily built-up surfaces add sculptural dimension, while distinct stylistic treatments differentiate each spatial zone. Through saturated color, visual contrast, and pronounced materiality, Nguyen’s paintings reflect a sustained engagement with this remarkable landscape and a fully realized exploration of the creative process.

(2015 - present)