Paintings on sacred fig leaves are popular gifts
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With an ambition to promote and preserve national traditions, a young artist in Ho Chi Minh City has leveraged her passion for leaf-skeleton art to contribute to Vietnam's heritage.
Duong Huong Nhien, a 32 year-old from Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, first began using dead leaves for her paintings when she received a bodhi leaf skeleton as a gift from her friend a year ago.
At that time, Nhien believed bodhi leaves could be a valuable medium and began creating artwork using leaf skeletons.
Initially, she drew floral patterns which did not really meet her expectations.
She experimented with folk paintings with high hopes of creating unique artisan products.
As her work blew up on different social media platforms, Nhien was overwhelmed with orders of classic designs, such as Boy Sitting on a Buffalo and Playing the Flute, Five Tigers, and Carp Looking at the Moon, for the upcoming Tet festival.
Nhien picks up small-sized leaves from the bodhi plants she grows at home and purchases larger leaves from Ninh Binh in northern Vietnam.
Depending on their intended use, the leaves can be colored in two to three days.
The time it takes to complete a painting depends on its details.
A difficult artwork often takes Nhien a few days while a simple one takes only a few hours.
Nhien’s drawing on the leaf skeleton can be used on gift boxes, picture frames, or lighting decorations.
“Leaf skeletons are very different from other painting materials," Nhien told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
"Their surfaces have tiny pores.
"I’m also quite limited by the leaf sizes.
"The largest leaves are only about 15-17cm, so when I draw I have to minimize the details of the paintings.”
Nhien’s work ranges in price from VND500,000 (US$22) to over VND1 million (US$43), depending on the content and size of the painting.
Tuoi Tre News