Batik:
The word batik is Javanese and has been translated as "good points
or dots." This refers to the tiny dots in Indonesian patterns that give
them a lively quality and that show a mastery of technique. A standard
definition of the medium of batik is that it is a way of coloring fabric with
successive dye baths, producing a design by using wax to resist dyes on cloth.
The process seems to have evolved on several continents as long ago as several
thousand years. Ancient pieces of batiked cloth have been found in present-day
China, India, Egypt, Peru, Indonesia and other countries. Though the birthplace
of batik is unknown, the medium has reached its highest form on the island of
Java where all aspects of the art form have religious and historical
significance.
At first, Indonesian batik artists used only the natural indigo dye, so the
cloth was white (the god Shiva, symbolizing good) and blue (the god Vishnu,
symbolizing wisdom). Legend says that a brown dye (the god Brahma, symbolizing
strength) made of tree bark came into use after soldiers returned from battle
wearing blood-stained batiked cloth.
Approximately 500 years ago, Javanese batik was done by women in the royal
family and many designs created in the palace are still produced today in
varying forms. When the Chinese arrived on Java about 100 years ago, many
Indonesians began producing batik cloth as a business, which continues today.
The introduction of German dyes by the Dutch in this century inspired more
colorful batiks.
Throughout the centuries, Indonesian batik has been influenced by the Hindu,
Buddhist and Islamic religions. Each traditional Indonesian pattern has a name
and a meaning, as does each shape within the pattern. For example, one of the
wedding patterns reserved for wear by the bride and groom contains square forms
that signify rice fields. When the squares contain the ukel shape it means the
fields are full of rice. Another wedding pattern contains a house shape within
a butterfly pattern, signifying that the family will live happily.
Other common patterns are parang (originally only for the royal family),
garuda (king of the air), sekarjagad (map of the world), and
truntum (for the parents of the bride). Each pattern may have dozens of
variations, each with a different significance.
Traditional Indonesian batik is created by using tree resin, insect wax,
coconut oil, paraffin or old wax. Several of these materials are combined in
different proportions and each formula is used for a different purpose. The
most common fabric is fine cotton, though silk is also used.
For batik tulis, each design is hand-drawn with melted wax using either
a janting or a jegul, usually by a woman. A janting has a small
brass bowl at the end of a handle; a tiny spout allows the melted wax to run
onto the fabric. A jegul is made from cotton fibers and is used to brush the
wax on large areas. Batik jap involves the use of an intricately
patterned stamp made from copper strips and is usually used by the men.
In basic traditional Indonesian batik, the cloth is prepared by rinsing,
starching and pounding. The design is applied in wax with janting and jegul and
the piece is dyed in an indigo bath. Next, some parts of the design are scraped
off to allow the next color to penetrate those areas. Then it is waxed again to
preserve some of the blue parts and dyed another color. This process may be
repeated many times. The last step is to remove all the wax in a procedure
using boiling water and caustic soda.
Cracking or crackling is a process which produces dark lines all
over the design of the fabric. Using paraffin or beeswax and then crumpling the
fabric creates hairline cracks in the wax, allowing dye to enter the fabric and
produce the texture that is part of the unique charm of batik. However, too
much cracking can destroy detail and subtle color gradations or blendings.
While cracking is not admired in fine Indonesian batik, it is used by
contemporary Indonesian batik artists, especially on Bali where batik is geared
toward tourists.
While techniques may differ, with each artist the process is many-layered:
after a color is applied, set, rinsed and dried, certain areas are waxed to
preserve that color. Then another dye is added and waxed and the process is
repeated. Each dying and waxing may take one day, and each piece may
take two weeks or more to complete, depending on the complexity of design.
Giclée:
The art of fine printing has become even more precise with the advent of the
revolutionary Giclée (ghee-clay) printing process. A Giclée print
is as rewarding visually as it is technically amazing. For brilliant, exquisite
color and razor sharp detail it is unsurpassed. This type of art reproduction
is quickly becoming the new standard in the art industry, and is widely
embraced for its quality by major museums, galleries, publishers, and artists.
A Giclée print is simply the closest duplication of an original artwork
that is humanly, mechanically, or technically possible.
The cornerstone of this process are enhanced digital ink jet printers which are
specifically designed for the rigorous and precise criteria of fine art
collectors and connoisseurs of museum quality, limited edition prints.
The word Giclée itself is French, and means spurt or squirt, in this
case meaning, "spray of ink". From a hundred of inkjets more than a
million droplets of ink per second are sprayed on a canvas or watercolor paper
spinning on a drum. Once completed, an image is comprised of almost 20 billion
droplets of ink. The latest Giclée Printing Technology enhanced the
standard 4-color process to an 8-color process.
The resulting print has no perceptible dot pattern, an endless array of richly
saturated color, and every nuance of the original image. The most archival,
water based light-fast inks available in the world are used. The latest inks
offer up to 70-year light-fastness and UV-resistance under museum archival
condition.
Beyond this description, a Giclée print simply must be seen to be fully
appreciated. Fine Art Galleries across the country are warmly receiving
Giclées.
Giclée prints have an impressive exhibition record. They have been shown
in museums and galleries throughout the world. A few examples are….The
Metropolitan Museum of New York, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, The
Los Angeles County Museum, Zimmerli Museum of Art-Rutgers University, The
British Museum, National Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, San
Francisco Museum of Art, and The Corcoran Gallery.
Watercolor:
Simply put, watercolor is a painting compound using water-soluble pigments that
are either transparent or opaque.
Because of the medium itself as well as the paper to which it is applied,
watercolor is frequently thought of as a fugitive medium. Not so! While
watercolor may not rival oils for durability and longevity, it is a medium that
has a very durable and distinguished history and, clearly, a healthy future.
While American artists in the early 19th century seemed to regard watercolor
primarily as a sketching tool preparatory to the "finished" work in
oil or engraving, English artists of the mid-1700's had already elevated
watercolor to a serious medium equal to oil. In England, watercolor was first
used by architectural draftsmen and topographers, but soon watercolorists were
introducing figures into their compositions. It took the genius of Winslow
Homer to reveal to American artists the extraordinary potential of watercolor
as a medium of serious expression. Once accepted, watercolor became an
inevitable medium for the American painter who, from the beginning, made
landscape painting one of the dominant features of the American art tradition.
Watercolor's inherent luminosity, combined with its capacity for rapid
execution, gave landscape painters an ideal means for recording the fleeting
effects of nature.
The history of watercolor is inextricably bound to the history of paper,
invented in its present form by the Chinese shortly after 100 AD. Papermaking
was introduced to Spain by the conquering Moors in the mid-12th century and
spread to Italy 25 years later. One of the earliest paper centers was Fabriano,
Italy with mills in operation by 1276.
The forerunner of watercolor painting was buon fresco painting:
wall-painting using watercolor paints on wet plaster. The most famous example
of buon fresco is, of course, the Sistine Chapel, begun in 1508 and
completed in 1514. In Europe, as early as the 15th century, Albrecht Durer
(1471 - 1528) was painting in watercolor. Durer's influence was partly
responsible for the first school of watercolor painting in Europe, led by Hans
Bol (1534 - 1593).
The American West was an important area in the history of American art, and of
watercolor in particular. Much of the record of exploration of the lands and
people west of the Mississippi was kept by artists whose only means of painting
was watercolor. George Catlin (1796 - 1870) was one of the "explorer
artists" who used watercolor to document his travels among Indian tribes
during the 1830's. Thomas Moran's watercolor sketches of Yellowstone in 1871 so
impressed Congress that they voted to make Yellowstone the nation's first
National Park.
Great interest in watercolor was created by the reporter/artists of the Civil
War. Their on-the-scene drawings of the battlefields were used as illustrations
in the newspapers and magazines of the day, the most famous being Harper's
Weekly.
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