Located on the 4^th floor of a modest house at the top of Trường Chinh Str., in the heart of Hanoi, “Tranh Lá Việt”-Vietnamese Leaf Paintings workshop of Mr. Nguyễn Văn Duy gathers nearly 20 master craftsmans who eager for devoting to creativity.

Entering the house with its traditional shuttered windows is like stepping back a hundred years. Minimal furniture includes very simple wooden chairs, a bench and tables with teacups and roses in a vase. All round the room, however, stacked against every inch of wall, are the main focus of this house: leaf paintings.  

Examining these painting of rural lanscapes, moss-covered ancient streets of Hanoi, or description of Vietnamese countryside view such as he elegant roof of communal house with old tiles, an ancient pagoda casting her shadow on the river or a charming girl of ethnic minority in colourfully traditional clothes, graceful maidens in long dress or traditional loose-fitting blouse, and merciful Buddha, viewers can immediately admire the patience and diligence for each small detail in these art-works. 

This is workshop of Nguyễn Văn Duy, who graduated from Food Chemistry Department of the Polytechnic University, worked for many company but decided to choose leaf-painting as his life-work.  

Although there are various materials used as well as numerous techniques applied to create paintings, Duy chooses to bring back  leaves to an eternal life, contributing to art a new breath of air. 

“When I was a student, I loved to see the falling leaves on the school-yard. Then, I had a chance to view Japanese and Chinese leaf painting. At that time, I wonder why don’t I take the full advantage of rich source of leaves at this tropical Vietnam” said Mr. Văn Duy. 

Văn Duy special idea has attracted many art-lovers, most of them are students of Art University, joining force to establish this Tranh Lá Việt workshop. They had tested practically hundred  times to find new method for leaf treatment which can keep dry leaf with  original colour and long-lasting existence with the test of time. Over the pass year, thousands of leaf-painting of Tranh Lá Việt has enchanted art lovers not only by the artisan’s creativity but also the simplicity and oriental of materials. 

Making a leaf-painting is a long and complex process requiring great skill and patience. To make a valuable and high quality painting, these artisans have to come to mountainous areas or forests throughout the country to find suitable leaves. After collecting,  leaf is gathered round workshop to discard unsuitable leaf: tattered, discoloured leaf or leaf hasn’t decayed or begun the decay process. Again, these artisans spends coutless hours washing up  carefully by hand to clean surface and eliminate stain leaves, boiling and sun drying, etc. Boiling leaf  is one of the most important stage because it will influence directly to colour, toughness, so that  this stage must be controlled strictly by master craftsman. After boiling process, dry leaf with the initial properties: fragile, crispness, easy to loose natural colour… now becoming soft, tough, stable and fast colour. Because different kind of leaf requires different boiling temperature and time treament. This process takes 2-3 days, sometime  even up to 1 week. With drying and some further processes, leaf  now become ideal art material for leaf painting production.

Different from leaf paintings of the Kazuo Akasaki (Japanese) which are covered with the same typical brown of dry leaf, making them look dismal and sad, Tranh Lá Việt’s artisans bring more colours into their picture. Ater preparing material stage, leaves will have various colours including white, yellow, brown, grey, black,…But natural colour of leaf is still restricted so some colours,  these artisans have to dye leaf by pigments. This dyeing process also requires experience and techniques for stable and long-lasting colour leaf.

“In the coming time, we are in progress to use 100% natural colour leafin our unique leaf paintings,” said Mr. Như Vượng-manager of the Tranh Lá Việt.

After outlining the main detail of the leaf painting in pencil, the artisan have to choose the right leaf with suitable colour for his art-works. Because each artisan has his own feeling with his art-works so each person will choose with different leaf and colour. This unique particularity  make leaf painting totally different with other type of art because with the same content, you can not find two leaf paintings is the same with each other. This important stage require artisan’s patience, diligence and creation. One finished leaf painting is made of thousands of leaf details and artisan only use scissors to cut leaf into desired shapes. Normally, it takes 3-5 days to finish one leaf painting. Some big and complicated leaf painting require much more time.

These highly qualified artisans can make fine art reproduction leaf paintings not only from photos, portraits of all master painters like Vermeer, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Da Vinci, Breughel and Cezanne but also from less famous painters like Leighton, Van Dijck, Miro and Chagall ao. Customers only need to give pictures and they will transfer these ones into leaf-painting material. Each painting, based on the size, is priced from US$30 to hundreds dollar.

These works, under the brand name Tranh Lá Việt, are available at a large number of galleries at Hanoi’s old quarter, on the website www.giahoco.com and displayed at a showroom on 3rd floor, below the workshop. Customer can have a look at manual treatment stage of dry leaf for keeping eternal colour and see how our unique Vietnamese Leaf Paintings are hand-made by master craftsmans before go down to the 3^rd floor to buy some. Especially, Tranh Lá Việt will be generously introduced to Hanoi citizen at VIETNAM EXPO 2008 at Vietnam Exhibition Fair Center, 148 Giãng Võ from 9-13 April 2008.

For the owner Văn Duy, manager Như Vượng and all the craftmans here, the reward for their perseverance is that via their amazing paintings using fallen leaves, they are introducing a unique art in the world to Vietnamese art lovers and friends all over the world.