A fancy Eastern dragon head on a background in a color palette of red, yellow, blue.
Portfolio
/
Fine Art
/
A Star In Tan

A Star In Tan

Medium
Fine Art
Dimension
7 x 10 in
Date
March 2026
Tools Used
Gouache
Winsor & Newton
Project
Vietnamese Spirit
Description

A flag can become a face if you look at it long enough. This gouache page sets the gold five-pointed star of the Vietnamese flag on a red field, then puts a single eye inside the star, watching out from behind my own glasses. The flag looks back at you. It is a small painting that carries one idea, and small paintings are often where an idea arrives before it knows what it wants to become.

Gouache painting on a red field: a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.
View
TAKE A DEEPER LOOK AT project

Vietnamese Spirit

Previous workNext work
Alcohol marker and coloured pencil illustration of a Vietnamese broken rice plate with grilled pork, a fried egg, herbs and pickles, hand-lettered Cơm Tấm.
View

Vietnamese Food

November 2025
Gouache painting on a red field, a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.
View

A Star In Tan

March 2026
Oil triptych Vietnamese Spirit, the Lac bird carrying a golden lotus, a young man in a red Ao dai holding a gold star, and a Ly-Tran dynasty dragon.
View

Vietnamese Spirit · Long Lac Heart Reunion

April 2026
MORE IN

Fine Art

Previous workNext work
Charcoal and graphite drawing of a mock TIME cover, a young man in glasses in profile gazing up toward falling light, with the cover line Look Up! It's Light & Flowers.
View

Look Up!

October 2026
Gouache self-portrait in black-framed glasses on a deep red field, a red rose crossing the face, a spent sunflower at the shoulder and the letters T, A and N set into the composition.
View

Multi-Portrait

November 2025
Framed charcoal and graphite drawing of a mock TIME magazine cover, with a hand-lettered masthead and a portrait of a young man in glasses under the headline A Plan in Tan's Hand.
View

A Plan in Tan’s Hand

April 2026
Four gouache panels in blue and gold shown together as a set, each staging a different idiom as a single image.
View

Visual Idioms

January 2026
Gouache self-portrait with the top of the head opened like a planter and filled with coloured building blocks, a small green umbrella above and a tree at the left.
View

Father Nature

January 2026
Gouache portrait of Bad Bunny with curly hair, moustache and beard, painted against the Puerto Rican flag.
View

DTMF Bad Bunny

April 2026
Oil painting of the Statue of Liberty in green with a hand on her heart against red and white stripes, beside a hand-lettered blue panel reading Miss Liberty says, America needs love.
View

America Needs Love

April 2026
Oil portrait of a young man with vivid blue hair shading his eyes, in a gold garment against a dark ground, with a teal square, red circle and yellow triangle at his shoulder spelling his full name in Mandarin characters.
View

Kyle’s Portrait

April 2026
Oil portrait of a young girl in a crown of daisies, roses, tulips and a sunflower, a yellow butterfly at the left and a glowing blue butterfly at her shoulder, on a warm yellow to pink ground.
View

The Flower Crown On Sister's Hair

June 2026
Oil self-portrait in glasses against a ground split between red and deep navy, with a glowing sunflower behind the ear and two monarch butterflies lifting away from it.
View

Young Man With Sunflower

May 2026
Alcohol marker and coloured pencil illustration of a Vietnamese broken rice plate with grilled pork, a fried egg, herbs and pickles, hand-lettered Cơm Tấm.
View

Vietnamese Food

November 2025
Gouache painting on a red field, a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.
View

A Star In Tan

March 2026
Oil triptych Vietnamese Spirit, the Lac bird carrying a golden lotus, a young man in a red Ao dai holding a gold star, and a Ly-Tran dynasty dragon.
View

Vietnamese Spirit · Long Lac Heart Reunion

April 2026
Gouache portrait of Jack Kirby in blues and teals, hand resting at his cheek, against a ground patterned with four-pointed stars.
View

Jack Kirby

March 2026
Gouache portrait of Stan Lee smiling in blues, in dark-framed glasses and a shirt patterned with circled number four motifs.
View

Stan Lee

March 2026
Graphite and coloured pencil presentation drawing of the Baxter Building and the Excelsior tower in perspective, with hand-lettered callouts and a circled number four mark.
View

The Baxter Building & The Excelsior in Perspective

December 2025
Alcohol marker, acrylic and coloured pencil still life of the Fantastic Four uniform, a blue suit with a circled four, a white glove in the sleeve, grey boots and a buckled belt, against cream with turquoise stars.
View

Fantastic Costume

November 2025
Oil painting on canvas of an open hand held palm out with the thumb tucked, hand-lettered four three two one we have lift off, with the First Steps logo at lower right.
View

‘Four’ The Stars

November 2025
Close lightbox
Previous image
Next image
Gouache painting on a red field: a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.Gouache painting on a red field: a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.
⏴
⏵
Back/Next
Mouse scroll icon
Zoom In/Out
SPACE
On/Off Magnifier
Brightness