Nguyen's paintings seek not to evoke the memory of a particular place but a sensual memory of moments gone by, spent on the land; by the ocean. He accomplishes this with a complex layering of paint. Using oils, he begins with a pastel underpainting, organizing land masses and bodies of water. The body of the painting appears when he begins to put in the texture. Adding paint and scraping away, the textures build, the colors are revealed. This time consuming process takes weeks to accomplish but working in oil affords him the time to work on all these layers at once. Consequently, he works on several at one time, with all finishing seemingly, at once. Once the textures are dry, Nguyen glazes each area to get the final color he envisioned. It takes only three glazes if the painting comes together right away, 7-10 if it is more difficult. He is always working with an almost impossible desire to match what he feels to what he can accomplish in paint.