By Kirara Kamo
Northwest Asian Weekly
The 32nd Bellevue Festival of the Arts (BFoA) will take place this weekend (July 29–31) as a part of “Bellevue Arts Fair Weekend.” With many amazing artists and enthusiastic fans, BFoA has become one of the leading and long-awaited annual cultural events in the City of Bellevue. This year, the festival will feature 49 local and regional artists from the Pacific Northwest including several Asian artists.
Artwork by Hung Nguyen
Hung Nguyen, painter
Hung Nguyen was born in Vietnam. When he was studying design art at Indiana University, he got an opportunity to learn three different painting techniques: watercolor, oil and acrylic. After college, he spent over 20 years working as a graphic designer for Boeing, KIRO-TV, KING-TV, and Walt Disney Internet Group in Seattle. He did watercolor as a hobby at first. Then, Hung decided to turn his hobby into a job as his second career. He is now a full time artist. “I hope audiences are able to look at my paints and feel not only beauty but tranquility, peace, atmosphere and mood,” Hung said. This year, he will exhibit multiple works of boats, seascapes and landscapes.
Hung told the Northwest Asian Weekly that his biggest inspiration is nature, water, and the forest.
Artwork by Ashmita Gulati
Ashmita Gulati, painter
Ashmita Gulati was born in Mumbai, India, and has been living in the Northwest since 1996. In 2005, Gulati picked up her paint brushes again after a long break. Inspired by the surrounding natural beauty and the glorious hues through the different seasons, she worked on a series of abstract canvases called The Many Moods of the Northwest. “My art creations reflect color and let my viewers enjoy their own interpretations of what they see.”
Noticing a change in women’s lives in her travels back to India, she created another series on canvas called “Women’s Empowerment.” “Often I look at my work in progress and take away whatever experiences I feel at that time. Chances are on return that I would interpret the same work into a different language — more related to my feelings at that exact moment.” She hopes that her viewers have a similar dynamic experience as they see her art.
Jing Shi, painter
Jing Shi began her artistic career by designing women’s clothing in Beijing after graduating from college. She moved to the United States in the late 1990s and in 2011, she transitioned to creating traditional Chinese watercolor and sketches, and oil paintings and photography. Shi is eager to introduce beautiful traditional Chinese watercolor art to the public along with various other types of Asian art including calligraphy, photography, and oils.
Charan Sachar, ceramics
Charan Sachar will provide unique handmade pottery inspired by Indian designs, fabrics, embroidery, colors and Bollywood. Lived in India for most of his life, his works show his love for Bollywood movies and his fascination with life in India. You can see the unique colors, fabrics, embroidery and designs which strongly influenced him.
Kirara can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.