U Win Pe Myint
A visit to True Colours is not just a simple excursion to an art gallery, but rather a short-term immersion into the life and dreams of an artist. True Colours is the proud creation of 57-year-old U Win Pe Myint, an artist who is well known in Myanmar and who has also managed to make a name for himself in other parts of the world. However, the gallery and residence is not the extravagant creation of someone who is rich with money, but rather of a down-to-earth artist who luxuriates in the lush life of the inspired mind.
U Win Pe Myint lives in an L-shaped three-storey home in Yangon's HIaing Tharyar Township. "I asked my architect to design a simple house in which I could feel free and vast within a small space," he said.
On the ground floor is the cement-floored True Colours art gallery, where he displays his own acclaimed paintings as well as the work of a few fellow artists.
The family lives on the first floor, where a triangle-shaped verandah extends out from the inside angle created by the building's L shape. Flooring with diagonal grooves runs from wall to wall, adding a fresh and lively atmosphere to the living space.
The top floor is the domain of the artist himself, where he shuts away the outside world and puts his magic hands to work.
U Win Pe Myint is very much a lover of nature, an appreciation that is evident in his landscape paintings.
"I don't artificially create the subjects of my paintings, but I also don't just copy nature scenes either - I just focus on subjects I'm attracted to," he said. "It can be an object, or it can be colour or light," he said. U Win Pe Myint's current obsession is clouds. His goal is to create 100 paintings featuring clouds of different shapes, and he has even constructed a small balcony, five steps above his studio floor, as his exclusive space for the project. U Win Pe Myint does not limit himself in terms of media or technique. He has experimented with them all, but his favourite is oil paint. "You can bully oil. You can stop any time or erase it or paint over it," he said.
Most of his paintings are small, about nine inches by seven inches, which allows the viewer to easily take in the entire picture, like viewing a distant scene through a window. U Win Pe Myint was born in 1948 to a father who was a land surveyor and a mother who was a merchant. Although he had no background in art, he became interested in it at a young age. “I copied whatever drawings I saw in magazines back then," he said.
Of his mother he said with a laugh, "She didn't stop me drawing but didn't encourage me either."
Although he was not formally trained in an art school, he learned basic painting skills first from artistic master U Lun Gywe, and later from other masters like Thein Han, Shwe Oung Thame and Paw Oo Thett. U Win Pe Myint moved to Yangon in 1968. He threw himself into the city's art scene in 1972 and by 1977 had landed a one-man exhibition. Since then he has held shows in Myanmar and overseas - including Singapore and Hong Kong – with another planned for next year. His works have also been exhibited in Japan, China, South Korea, the United States and Britain.
From : Golden Flight Air Mandalay’s Inflight Magazine U Win Pe Myint By Su Myat Hla
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