Indonesian artist Teddy Asmara collects dry leaves from his hometown of Bogor, West Java and transforms them into impressive paintings which he later sells.

The leaves used are yellow rubber manifold leaves and awar-awar leaves that are already dry and brown in colour.

Most of the paintings ordered by customers are face portraits with the fastest production time of about three days or a maximum of one week.

Asmara said: "I started working on leaf paintings in 2016. I made use of the dried leaves of organic waste.

"Usually, what I paint is a portrait of a face there is one person or two people at the most."

Asmara's art has only been marketed in Indonesia with one of his paintings sold for one million rupiahs to three million rupiahs (£55-£165).

Teddy Artists Converts Trash in the Form of Dry Leaves into Paintings that have High Selling Prices

An artist named Teddy Asmara collects organic waste in the form of dried leaves into a high-priced painting work in Bogor, West Java Province, Indonesia, Tuesday, June 7, 2020.

These dried leaves are used as a container for paintings of various kinds of images.

The uniqueness of the painting that Teddy made was the use of dried leaves as his painting medium.

Not only large leaves are used, but small leaves can also be painted.

The leaves used are yellow rubber manifold leaves and awar-awar leaves that are already dry and brown in color.

The leaves were chosen because they have a flat, thick, not brittle surface, and are resistant to paint.

In addition to using oil paint, Teddy also uses instant coffee powder to produce monochrome and retro paintings.

Teddy started to develop painting on these dry leaves since 2016.

Most of the paintings ordered by customers are face portraits with the fastest production time of about three days or a maximum of one week.

This painting has only been marketed in Indonesia with one of his paintings sold for one million rupiah to three million rupiah.


Interview: Teddy Asmara / Artist

"I started working on leaf paintings in 2016. I made use of the dried leaves of organic waste.

I take the leaves that have dried there are awar-awar leaves, yellow rubber leaves.

Usually, what I paint is a portrait of a face there is one person or two people at the most.

It's like this in yellow rubber leaves. Then monocrome like this I use coffee and poster paint. This coffee media in yellow rubber leaves too.

There are also those in awar-awar leaves. I paint or sketch directly on the location of this solar street. I use the medium of poster paint and Chinese ink on dry awar-awar leaves.

For the duration of the production, the average is three days, the fastest is three days, the longest time is one week for this leaf painting.

Leaf paintings are still sold in Indonesia, the farthest east Nusa Tenggara in Labuan Bajo, last yesterday to Sulawesi.

Hopefully in the future I can exhibit a single leaf painting from dried leaf litter, "


Video: Andi M Ridwan / Opn Images