Through the photo saved at the Sen Bac Company (Hanoi), the portrait of late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is still vivid. The portrait was crafted with traditional silver threads by Vietnamese artisans.

Sharing with the Vietnam Times, Tran Tuan Hung, who designed the painting at Sen Bac Company, said "The painting is a 35x35cm square wrapped in a dark brown wooden frame. The four corners of the picture are bound with solid screws. The outside is lined with a double-glazed plate, attached to the edge and the large frame of the picture."

Details making up the soul of the picture

To create the painting, Tran Tuan Hung spent many days researching how to arrange the composition to suit the painting with silver threads.

"Different from other types of paintings such as oil painting, ceramic painting or bronze engraving, painting with silver threads is more about the overview of the customer's portrait. Therefore, instead of using the depth of the subject like ordinary paintings, the detailed lines from the silver threads will create the soul of this type of painting," Hung said.

After that, the craftsmen spent a lot of time discussing to find the optimal solution. They focused on the details of the hair and smile - the most prominent features on the face of the late Japanese Prime Minister.

Tran Tuan Hung and his colleague discussed the composition of the painting.

"The curly hair part is reinforced between the welds more evenly, almost twice as much as the welds of the silver threads in the normal part," Hung said.

The hair is made up of many silver threads rolled and then braided together, forming the frame of the hair. Then, they attached twisted silver threads to form the complete hair. Created based on the selected photo, seen from a distance, the hair is the most prominent and unique feature.

"Artists need to spot welds in folds and curves," Tran Tuan Hung said. "Therefore, a lot of welds are made close together, about 2-3 millimeters."

According to Bao Ngoc, an artist in the group, the painting process requires a lot of technique and care.

"Although there are only two strokes to create the corners of the mouth and the smile, it is difficult to arrange harmoniously between the parts," Ngoc said.

Meanwhile, facial proportions require a high balance. If the craftsman deviated a few millimeters, the overall picture would not be harmonious.

This is also the reason why Ngoc and the craftsmen chose black velvet fabric as the background for the painting. The use of this material helps the picture to have good light reflection to help highlight the subject more.

The frame of the picture is also selected according to the light-dark color scheme, and must not coincide with the color of the background fabric because it will widen the composition, and cause disproportion.

The tireless efforts of the craftsmen have paid off. At the ceremony taking place in March 2023 in Hanoi, Lady Akie Abe, wife of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, could not hide her emotion when receiving the portrait.

The painting is like a deep gratitude of the Vietnamese people for the contributions of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the friendship between the people of Vietnam and Japan.

Akie Abe, wife of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (center) was touched when receiving the painting.

Enduring efforts for a month

Talking more about the finishing stage of the painting, Nguyen Hong Hanh, founder of Sen Bac Company, said that the idea, design and completion of the painting was completed in one month.

Hanh said, "In early February, I suddenly received a request from a medical unit in Vietnam to order a portrait of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The purpose is to give to the wife of the late Prime Minister on her business trip to Vietnam in March 2023."

Initially, they had the idea to make a picture with silver threads, with the name of Lady Akie Abe, in a lotus flower. "This is a good idea, but perhaps a bit monotonous," said Hanh.

The painting of late Japanese PM.

In about two days of discussion, a bold and groundbreaking idea was put forward. It was to make a portrait of the late Prime Minister.

According to Hanh, the first difficulty is choosing a photo of the late Japanese Prime Minister to convert into painting with silver threads. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a lot of photos taken.

To solve this problem, Hanh contacted the secretariat of the Cabinet of late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with the desire to get photos that convey the his style and spirit, then transform into the painting with silver threads.

After selecting photos of the late Prime Minister, the team decided to choose a photo of PM Shinzo Abe smiling brightly during a speech.

With persistent efforts, after only one month, Vietnamese artisans created a vivid and meaningful portrait of late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe using silver threads.

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