Love is like a batik created from many emotional colors, it is a fabric whose pattern and brightness may vary.
– Diane Ackerman, American poet and essayist
I was once obsessed with batik painting. What exactly is batik? The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines it as a colouring method whereby wax encloses the patterned area so that other colours cannot infiltrate.
This method is mainly used on cotton material using traditional colours such as blue, brown, yellow and red.
To traditional batik designers batik is a fabric on which coloured patterns are born, starting with the plain white cloth to which wax has been applied to bring out the patterns (that would remain white until the end), and afterwards dipped (in colour mix) or drawn to bring out certain colours.
This same principle is applied during doing a batik painting.
Perhaps the only difference that a batik painting has from an ordinary batik pattern or design is that batik painting depicts a scenery, story or message by means of its motifs, figures, shapes, colours, lines, patterns, brush strokes and other artistic attributes belonging to or giving meaning and character to the art surface or picture space.
What characterises batik painting from other paintings is the use of cloth, dyes and wax.
By this the painting is distinguished from others by its ‘cracks’, referring to the cracked patterns effected by applying thick wax on the cloth surface after all the other colours are done.
After the application, this hardened surface will be cracked to arrive at a pattern where a dark colour is again applied.
This colour will permeate through cracks and stay there as permanent crack patterns, giving the painting a batik identity and character.
Painting on batik is very simple. One just gets to learn the basics and after completing a piece there is a strong sense of achievement.
Unlike other techniques, in batik painting one has to use liquefied and boiled wax or candles, applied to retain your chosen colours on the cloth.
The wax will be scrapped or removed first by hand and then by ironing.
I have been involved in batik painting since 1971 while being in Form Four in SMK Saratok. We were taught batik painting via a club known as the Art Club of which I was the president. The members comprised a few Form Five, Form Four and some Form Three and Form Two students. We were under the tutelage of our Arts teacher Joshua Jalie Linggong, my distant cousin. It was then a real obsession.
SMK Saratok was known for producing talented batik painters but it was our group that first held an exhibition in Kuching’s British Council premises sponsored by the British Council – our boys were hosted to a luncheon by the British Council representative at his home where we had to observe proper British dining etiquettes.
Held in 1971, this exhibition featured works by two Form Five students Yu Kim Tee @ Ahbong and Edward Chendang Luang (later Dr Edward Chendang now deceased), three paintings of mine and paintings by my classmates Andin Brooke, Nanang Tayai and Kendawang Ita plus some paintings each by Mulok Saban (Form Three) and Banyi Beriak (Form Two). My three paintings were all sold during the two-day exhibition.
While doing Upper Sixth at Methodist Secondary School in 1974, I was tasked by the school to produce as many batik pieces as possible within two weeks and stationed at the house of an Arts teacher Augustine Hwang. I
would be fetched by Hwang every morning and would start my painting immediately at his residence, provided with breakfast and lunch. Within the two weeks away from my classes, I managed to produce over 20 batik pieces that were framed for the two-day exhibition held in conjunction with the school’s 25th anniversary.
Such a batik exhibition was considered the first to be held in Sibu and therefore drew a lot of attention from the public resulting in 24 pieces of my painting being sold with frames on while five demo pieces were also sold without frames (and not listed in the official figure sold). Purchases were made by teachers from India, UK, USA, Canada and locals plus those bought by businessmen and others.
While in Kuala Belait of Brunei in Nov, 1997, I held a one-man show at Seria Shell Berhad lobby for and managed to sell 15 pieces during the one-day event. Purchases were made by American, Dutch, Kiwi, Aussie and British nationals.
Presently I’m not active in batik painting. My last piece was commissioned by a well-to-do Kuching lady circa 2013. It depicts an Iban maiden holding two gourd containers done in the style of French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) featuring bold experimentation with colours.
I still love to paint but taking a rest at the moment.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
