Trained to be a traditional portraitist at the age of 10 in his native Vietnam, Cuong has always had a passion for drawing human faces. He finds the natural beauty in the people that surround him—from the men and women he painted to earn money on the streets of Saigon as a child, to the denizens of Silicon Valley that he often paints today. Faces inspire him—so much so that that he has been known to approach strangers to request that they model for him.

Despite his focus on the human form, Cuong remains remarkably versatile as an artist. As an illustrator at Yahoo, he works on a digital canvas no bigger than 50 pixels square, designing icons that are viewed and loved around the world. At the other extreme, he has been invited to festivals in the U.S. and abroad to create pastel paintings on pavement as large as 24 x 16 feet. Though he always returns to people, he has developed a unique eye for still-life and even abstract work. His primary mediums include pastel and oil.

Art has always been a passion for Cuong. His formal training began at the Academy of Art in Saigon, but was interrupted when he realized his dream of escaping the country and coming to the U.S. Starting with only twenty dollars to his name, he worked multiple jobs to put himself through school and earn a degree in illustration and graphic design from San Jose State University. Though he put aside his fine art ambitions for a time, he was unable to stay away for long.

Cuong’s paintings depend on the dramatic portrayal of light, shadow and environment to create their mood and sense of realism. He often supplements the emotions visible in his subjects’ faces with symbolic imagery that adds a sense of mystery. He believes that a successful painting requires that he establish an emotional connection with his subject, so that the viewer in turn connects at an emotional level with his work. Cuong is a member of the International Guild of Realism, member of Oil Painters of America (OPA), and recently earned his tittle Distinguished Pastelist of the Pastel Society of The West Coast.

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