During the last year, the Art Retreat in Saigon center, run by Canadian painter Lindsay Erdman, has been a place where tourists from many countries can find a little bit of Vietnam to bring home after their visit.

Located on the rooftop of a house in a quiet alley in District 10, the center gives visitors a sense of the local lifestyle, with its decorative touches of Vietnamese non la (conical hat), lotus, guava, star fruit and ambarella fruit.

Usually open twice a month, each roughly three hour class is offered for groups of 4 to 6 people. The youngest participant so far is a 14 year old.

“I knew there is a lot of interest among tourists and expats to do something creative in Vietnam, so I started the class in the hope of offering a creative thing for them,” Lindsay shared.

A little bit of Vietnam to bring home

Lindsay first came to Vietnam to teach art in a school, and she has found interesting country-related topics for her classes.

“Most of my class’ participants want to paint some sort of Vietnamese painting, so I have many pictures of Vietnam, and that’s what they use for their paintings,” she said. “We celebrate a lot of beautiful things. I think Vietnamese cultural icons like ao dai, the lotus, Hoi An’s lanterns and Ha Long Bay are colorful, so they make very interesting subjects for painting.”

The painter, who has had over 30 exhibitions in many countries during her seven years of working with art, said she has constantly learned about different forms of art, and was naturally curious about watercolor on silk paintings when she arrived in Vietnam.

“I added the silk painting to my workshops as a way of offering more awareness of Vietnamese art to my students. I like to know that a little bit of Vietnam is going back to their countries with their paintings after my classes,” she shared.

The artist is very happy with what she has done. “I love art and making water color paintings makes me very happy, so I thought I would share the happiness with those who might want to learn to paint watercolors.”

Vera Seebald, an Art Retreat in Saigon participant from Germany, said she had a relaxing experiencing a new painting technique and Vietnamese culture by taking part in the class. Meanwhile Adam Howood, from the UK, said it’s interesting to learn about Vietnamese culture, and the beautiful aspects of the culture like silk paintings, ao dai, and lotus flowers.

 “I hope students have a peaceful time as well as a creative experience after coming here, where they are encouraged to continue painting or learning new things that are creative in Vietnam,” Lindsay said.