BATIK ART BY LUKANDWA DOMINIC

This batik was done on tissue paper and I must confess that this is one of the most senstive materials I've come across so far. Wax helps to keep the tender strips of tissue together. The dyes cannot be applied using brush as it might tear the tissues but with small pieces torn from a foam matress. The usual purpose of ironing is to remove wax but I don't want it removed because it holds the tissues together. So what do I do? I use ironing to spread the wax throughout the painting and leave about 80% of the wax and this is the result.

This new interesting batik shows a couple of common type of kingfishers called GREY HEADED KINGFISHERS. These little birds usually appear in pairs in Ugandan forested areas and swamps. I have also done the tied, woodland and pygimy kingfishers. I'll post here when these projects are completed. 

  This is a new batik titled DEEP IN THE WOODS (2012) measuring 17x11 inches. Recently I was researching into the different birds in our area and came across a 'noisy' tree, full of busy weaver birds and their nests. It was an amazing sight, birds were doing many activities ranging from building, dismantling nests to mere singing and fighting. I also realised that we have about 4 types of weaver birds in our area many of them in the forested area of the village. I'll try to do another batik or two of the weaver birds. Actually this is the first bird batik that I've ever done. To buy this original send me an email on info.dominicbatiks@gmail.com In Uganda, buy this and other prints by Dominic from Mish Mash, 28 Acacia Avenue. Buy prints online at  http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/lukandwa-dominic.html

This new batik tittled STARING OUT (2012) is a result of my recent experimentation on various material with cotton. The problem was that most of the materials I tried could not dye. This particular work is a combination of cotton on cotton. In painting with acrylic or oil, collage is quite simple because the paint works as a gluing substance for the added piece. But in the case of batik, needlework seemed to be the only way of attachment leading to threads to form fantastic tones in the batik. I've always been fascinated by collage done on canvas with aclyric and backcloth. There's a way that one can feel the canvas with a simple touch. However, most batiks (ones I have ever seen) are always on a flat material that provided little or no chance of feeling the texture. There's threadwork on cotton and that is all there is. This has always bored me and this experiment was intended to find new ways of escaping this boredom. I intend to paint a few more 'collaged'...