Updates

It has been quite awhile since I have written about my creative process.
The paint can girl is almost complete and I will post a photo here soon.
It was my first piece on cotton and I found that it was not my favourite surface to work on for batik. I feel that I get my best effects with silk and canvas.
But, I am very happy with the results of the mixed media effects with the batik. I think the needle felting really adds a beautiful element to my work. I added metalic acrylic ink over the background. I take inspiration from Gustav Klimt and his gold elements in many of his paintings. I love the shimmering effects that the metalic wash creates.
Another piece I will post on here soon was done on silk. For that one I created an expression from the inside out of matrimonial soul mate love between a man and a woman. There is a subtle suggestion that the woman is expecting a child and I have expressed those deep inner state of being feeling with the abstract forms that surround them.
I will continue my description once I add a photo. These two pieces will soon be complete and I'd like to wait until then to share them here.
The next piece I am about to begin will be on a thin canvas surface. Doing batik on canvas is wonderful for more of a controlled water colour feeling or effect. The dyes don't spread or pool on contact with the fibre as they do on cotton and silk. Instead you can really push it around with the brush and have complete control of subtle blending due to the nature of the canvas fibres.
I find the best way I get my inspiration for a piece is to come up with an intention that I want to build my state of being around. For example, the girl with the paint can was based on my intention to simply "release". Then I came up with the concept of creative release and creative play. I thought of how people have their very first creative experience in life as an infant with sensory experiences and how one can tap back into that as part of one's personal creative journey. That is, to really connect with one's art from a much deeper level and go beyond the creativity of the mind alone.
I also have a strong personal faith and personal relationship with God. Sometimes in day to day life one has to really remind oneself to refocus on faith. So, another piece I will soon do is focusing on that deep inner state of deep faith and really releasing that to God and trusting in his guidance.
I am really growing as an artist and as I continue to practice batik, my work is getting stronger.
Next year I will apply to art fairs to sell my work and to begin taking commissions again.

Preview of my next piece

Now that I have a better sense of the techniques of batik , I am now ready to embark on the journey of my next pieces. The one from the workshop is nearly done (just adding some needle felt embelishments). I will add an updated photo of it soon.

The same goes for the piece with the two female figures which I think I am going to title "The giving of Lotus Friendship". when I was adding a nice blue boarder to that one I had some happy accidents when steaming the dye to the fabric for the boarder. It produced a really nice effect which you will see once I put on a more recent photo. There is one spot I realized I forgot to needle felt, so I will add that as well and then try to get it stretched over pre-stretched canvas (it is a bit tricky to stretch fine silk without any creases).

Here is a sketch of the girl in the spilled paint. This was completely inspired by my March intention of Release*. I really find my intentions are all being exercised in my creativity and art. Right now is be calm, but in other areas of my life sometimes it can be a challenge but I try to apply it when I try to remain patient when training my dog. She will be mostly batik with needle felt embellishments, so I am reducing the amount of felted elements in my work to have them more as embellished features. I will see how that works.

* I have been following Sheri Gaynor's "Creative Awakenings". Part of that process is to set an intention for each month, and that has been inspiring the concepts for my art since I have started reading her book and participating on her site.(see link at the side)

Finished Modern Batik Workshop

I took a two day modern batik workshop and loved it.

The second part of the modern batik workshop was today. I found it amazing that a batik piece looks when one outlines details of the subject and background in black india ink. My instructor said the traditional way is to to mix a thicker consistency of black dye and then outline with that. Either way works. We used the dipable caligraphy pens.

Another thing I learned today was that there is an intermediate course to help one learn more refined techniques to this particular style of modern batik.

A few things that really excites me about batik is that one can experiment with it and come up with one's own unique techniques (there is no one way of doing it...unless you are a purist). Also, that it is so much quicker than doing oil paintings. I am impatient and like to see my finished results.

After working with the ink I realised that it would be good to use it to outline, in very fine lines, my background in my silk batik/needle felt piece that I recently posted.. So, I guess I am not as finished as I thought I was with it.

Above are some photos of the piece. I haven't finished the outlining yet and I will be adding some needle felted embelishments with the dyed sheep's wool and some silk fibres. The last two photos are closeups so you can see the ink outlining.

Here is the silk piece I am referring to.

taking a batik workshop

I will be taking a workshop in modern batik with the former student of a well known batik artist named David Kibuuka. He teaches an African style of modern batik.
This should enable me to develop my own techniques. Once I complete the nine hour course I will have a completed piece and I will include a picture of it here.
Once that course is done I will move from experimenting on silk to doing my batiks on cotton while adding silk elements.
My current experimental needle felt piece on silk will be completed shortly and I will post an image of it both here and on my website.

finally found a good book on batik

I finally found a good book on batik basics. It is good to see that there is no one way of doing batik. What I need to develop is the technical aspects of the fabric dyes.
I like the etherial nature of silk, but it has more challenges as far as the fabric dyes and the nature of silk fibres are concerned. I am thinking of experimenting of doing combined elements in a piece with the needle felting and combinations of the silk and cotton batik (sort of a needle felt/batik collage in a way). I am so excited because I am working in an outside the box way. It will be interesting to see how my art evolves as I add new techniques to each piece until I have established a consistent and new personal style.
In working in my sketchbook I have found that I want to continue to work in full figure compositions with my larger pieces and continue with my abstract heads/faces for smaller works (like expressions in bloom featured in this blog page). My larger pieces will be a continued evoloution of "Bliss" featured on this blog page and of the current piece I am working on on silk.

joined Sheri Gaynor's Creative Awakenings Salon

I just joined the online social network group created by Sheri Gaynor. She just released a book called Creative Awakenings. This group is a place for creative people to interact and share in their creative processes. I am looking forward to receiving her book and to begin the creative journaling exercises in it. I will continue to also blog in her online salon group.

Sheri Gaynor's website is http://www.sherigaynor.com/

I will be adding a link tag to my blog for her salon shortly.

sample pictures of my current batik and needle felt

Here is some pictures of a detail of part of the current art piece I am working on with combining batik and needle felting on silk. Currently most of my detail is in the felting and the batik is very painterly. I like the fluid painterly effect I did with the batik. The first dye stage was actually shibori style tie dye and then I did the batik wax resist for the additional colours.

For future pieces I want to have more vareity of the details in batik and have less of the needle felting for a more blended feel. I like this approach, but I am in an experimental phase of developing this method of working, and I am exploring different ways I can best combine the felting with the batik on silk.