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ARTIST OASIS
Painter Anh Duong finds perfect light at her expanded, serenely decorated 1887 fisherman’s house in East Hampton. BY DONNA BULSECO • PHOTOGRAPHY BY OBERTO GILI “I love the change of light from one room to the next,” says Anh Duong, posed here on a daybed near a self-portrait. “If you put the same light in each room, it’s too generic.”
light that infuses the 1887 fisherman’s house she bought in the ’90s that was virtually untouched by upgrades at the time. “There’s something about the openness of the beach that creates a special light that enhances the beauty of what you’re looking at, so everything is crisp and bright in a natural way. You can’t achieve that effect with artificial light.” Duong, who grew up in France, the daughter of a
Painters, especially those who do portraits, live for a certain quality of light, one that illuminates the emotional pitch and physical characteristics of the subject at hand. Artist Anh Duong is one of those painters who takes a deep, abiding interest in the way light looks in a given space, be it inside or out, and she counts herself lucky to have a place in East Hampton that delivers the magic. “It’s about the open sky,” says Duong when asked to characterize the 52
