Hugh Leeman has been known to plaster the walls of San Francisco and New York with his wheat paste images of homeless Tenderloin dwellers, but this time he’s taken it to the extreme. We just got word from the Bay Area artist as he travels through India, pasting up art all the way:

“These pieces I recently put up in Varanasi, India just as Holi festival began. They are on the ghats near the Ganges river. This was one of the most amazingly bizarre places I’ve ever been. I was working on these just before sunrise, while off in the distance from many different directions you could hear the chanting of monks and holy men coming from ashrams (as Varanasi is the holiest of cities in the Hindu religion). All while wild monkeys watched me from above and crows cawed as small black birds with brilliant orange specs ate at my excess drips of wheat paste. Further down the river banks bodies are cremated or floated down this holy river. A very strange trip indeed.” -Hugh Leeman

Hugh is best known for his public outdoor pieces, but he also does oil paintings and mixed media collage. More from Hugh:

Hugh Leeman Street Art in San Francisco

Hugh Leeman Video Interview