Triet first visited Cambodia together with members of the Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese as part of a programme to donate medicine and food to poor Vietnamese living in the country.

“I was deeply impressed by the sculptures carved on Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat hundreds of years ago,” Triet said, “I wanted to express part of that beauty in my works,”

He said he was especially struck by the depiction of apsaras, considered to be heavenly nymphs in Hindu mythology, on Cambodia’s temples.

The 36-painting exhibition Ấn tượng Angkor (Impressions of Angkor) includes depictions of apsara dancers and stone figures on the Bayon temple.

Triet was born in 1983 in Binh Dinh Province and studied painting in Hue and Sai Gon Fine Arts schools.

He started his painting and teaching career in 1961. In 1975 Triet moved to the US and continued with oil painting and contemporary illustration at a publishing house in Los Angeles.

His paintings are on display at HCM City Fine Arts Museum, 97A Pho Duc Chinh Street, District 1, through July 25.