It took 2,000 leaves of 300 varieties to put together 55 artworks on display at the art show Turning a New leaf, by artist Vasantha Mukthavaram.
The 62-year-old who has been creating art with leaves for the past 15 years says, “The toughest part of this is not the assembling of the artpiece, it’s actually finding the right kind of leaves.”
Artist Vasantha Mukthavaram
Currently on display are artworks based on Charlie Chaplin, Gandhiji, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai, Buddha etc., and Vasantha says that it is creating human figures that is the most difficult. “I do not cut leaves and so it is quite a task to find leaves that represent the eyes, nose etc. For instance, the Charlie Chaplin artwork alone took 2-3 months because I couldn’t find the perfect leaves for the pants,” explains Vasantha who adds that she finally went ahead with the art piece after she found Oak leaves for the pants.
For the show, Vasantha has collected leaves from different parts of the world, a few include the Japanese maple leaves, gingko leaves, neem and jasmine leaves among others.
