Phan Quang Nhat, 30, residing in Thuy Bieu Ward, Hue City, Thua Thien Hue Province, shows his great passion for painting by creating paintings on conical hats.

The conical hats painted by Nhat with scenic spots of Hue such as Thien Mu Pagoda, Truong Tien Bridge, Huong River and Ngu Binh Mountain, or motifs of girls, boats, storks and countryside are very attractive to visitors.

Therefore, Nhat's artistic tourism model of ‘House for painting conical hats’ in alley 373 on Bui Thi Xuan Street has been very inviting to both domestic and foreign tourists to visit and experience self-painting.

Mr. Phan Cong Nhat (second, right) takes a souvenir photo with a family from Belgium (Photo courtesy of the character)

Suddenly changing job

Nhat loves to paint but he could not pursue a professional painting path due to poverty. After finishing 9^th grade, Nhat decided to study silk painting.

After 7 years of studying silk painting, he quit the job because it was no longer suitable.

One afternoon, Nhat walked on the Truong Tien Bridge and saw charming girls wearing ‘ao dai’ and traditional conical hats posing for photos. He thought that if the traditional conical hats were embellished with more images would be more eye-catching and unique. More importantly, he realised that tourists often want to buy a souvenir imbued with the cultural identity of Hue. Therefore, he started to paint the landscape of Hue on conical hats.

However, Japan encountered obstacles when switching to painting on hats. As for painting on hats, the colour is easily smudged and flows backwards unlike painting on silk, requiring the artist to feel the real colours and learn how to mix colours.

It took Nhat more than 2 years to find a way to mix colours harmoniously and keep the colour from melting.

“I do not give up because of my passion. When I paint, I feel like I am myself, and the comfort helps me recharge my energy every day. My first finished products are highly praised by many people, so I am determined to live with my passion and try to draw more beautiful hats” recalled Nhat.

Self-painting experience

As shared by Nhat, painting on hats has 3 steps: painting the background colour for the hat, making a sketch on a hat when the background colour is dried, and painting finished details.

Finished painted hats are dried in the sun for about 10 minutes, in the rainy season, the drying method is used.

Every day, Nhat paints 20 hats, and it takes him 20 minutes to complete each hat.

Each finished product is sold at between VND100,000 and VND150,000 depending on models chosen by customers.

In addition to hats, Nhat also paints on lanterns and bamboo. Thanks to marketing activities conducted on Facebook and Zalo, Nhat is well known by customers at both home and abroad. He also receives a large number of orders from souvenir shops nationwide.

With the desire to help everyone access this type of arts, Nhat opened an artistic tourism model of ‘House for painting conical hats’ right at his house in alley 373 on Bui Thi Xuan Street, Thuy Bieu Ward in February 2022.

On holidays or weekends,his small house is always bustling with the laughter of domestic and foreign tourists who come to visit and experience self-painting.

Ms. Pham Nhu Y from Nha Trang said under the enthusiastic guidance of Mr. Nhat, she finished painting on a hat with the beautiful image of Thien Mu Pagoda in just 20 minutes.

A Belgian family excitedly drew a conical hat with the images of the national flags of Belgium and Viet Mam, and a girl driving a boat on the Huong River. The hats painted by guests will save their memories in Hue and follow them around the world.

Recently, Nhat has been invited to share his career story in the programme ‘Morning coffee’ on VTV3 channel.

“Painting on a hat makes me happy every day and is a source of my income to cover my life. I plan to expand the place of painting and bring Hue conical hats throughout the domestic and foreign markets in the future” said Nhat.

Reporting by HUYNH TUONG VY - Translating by M.DUNG