Saigon Wall Art of Markets and Palace Lawns

A yellow market gateway with a clock tower, wet streets crossed by motorbikes, palace lawns framed by orange trees, figures in ao dai and a street table laid with pork chop rice are what these Saigon paintings show. Most of them are landscapes, and a good share are market or street scenes. Each one is sold as a hand-painted oil painting or as an archival canvas print.

Market towers, wet squares and street stalls

The market clock tower comes back in several paintings, and each one reads differently. In one, a yellow gatehouse rises over a wet street with its arch and walls reflected in the puddles, and umbrellas, a motorbike and a grey car move under a cloudy blue sky. In another, a pale yellow market hall with a red roof stands behind a crowd, and the street in front carries long reflections of yellow, orange and blue in loose, visible brushstrokes. A third shows an elderly woman in a blue patterned blouse reading a wide newspaper beside a white motorbike, with packed shelves, a red bucket and stacked blue cloth behind her. For more of this kind of subject, the Market Scene and Street Scene pages hold neighbouring paintings.

Palace lawns, fountains and ao dai

The calmer paintings turn to green. One shows a tall white fountain rising from a round pool on bright green lawn, with a tree-lined street running away beyond iron gates under soft morning light. Another places a pale palace with a red flag behind a round lawn, orange tree crowns on both sides and a grey road leading to the entrance. In a third, a figure in peach and a figure in a green ao dai move along a paved path before a cream palace, painted in loose strokes. These scenes belong to the same world as Iconic Vietnam, where well-known sights hang together.

Colonial towers and a street table

A cream tower with a terracotta roof and a single arched window stands beside a low arcade under a wide grey-blue sky, a quiet scene that also fits with French Colonial. At the other end of the range, a plate of rice with a glazed pork chop and a fried egg sits on a worn wooden table, a teal mug and blurred motorbikes beyond it in the sunny street.

Colours on the wall

The yellow towers and red signboards sit well on a pale wall, while the green lawns and blue skies suit a white or grey wall beside them. The rain scenes keep their colour in the reflections, so they work where a quieter palette is wanted.