BATIK ART BY LUKANDWA DOMINIC

In this new work I'm focusing on wildlife and elephants in particular. I have done several paintings on elephants. This one is a little more interesting as it shows part of the face, particularly, the eye. Emphasis is on a network of skin wrinkles on the face of an old matriarch or the lead cow. I did it with a modern approach making it a 'modern elephant'.

This is still work in progress. 

This new project has 6 batiks in a set showing the rich colors and art found on the traditional Ugandan dress, the GOMESI or BUSUUTI. The women use this dress on traditional functions like weddings and introductions.The size of each batik painting is 40x30 inches. NOT FOR SALE.

In this batik (still work on progress), I'm experimenting on different approaches to batik. I have done 2 pieces of the same sketch using about 5 approaches.

THE WORLD IN THE EYES OF A CHAMELEON It's a world of color, imitation and buzzing insects all around. A meal can come from anywhere and all surroundings offer an endless opportunity at camouflage. No need for speed. A secret weapon will be unleashed on the unsuspecting insect. Just like a bolt of lightening, everything will be finished in a blink. The world in the eyes of a chameleon.  

A selection of Christmas cards is available for sale. Choose from 7 Christmas cards originally done in batik medium. The card is 4x6in in size, printed on high quality wood-free art-board 250gm paper and comes with a wood-free white envelope and a reusable plastic cover to protect the card from elements. A big discount on bulk purchases. Contact me on +256 772357756 lukandwad@yahoo.co.uk

The latest batik from me is a continuation of the water lily series. I found myself focusing more on the flower detail. I like the little finger-like features from the centre of the flower spreading out. SOLD

In this new batik I focused on one of the most important stages in the introduction ceremony. This is where mostly single girls from the brides's family come to greet and welcome the groom's side. They kneel down on a beautifully woven mat and humble themselves. Their hope is that some handsome young man from the groom's side will notice them. They roll their eyes, adjust their garments as they try to catch the eye of the would-be spouses from the other side. They stretch out the traditional belt (ekitambaala) infront of them. One of them gets a chance to say the greeting on a microphone as the rest look on. 

WATER LILY (2013) 35X40 inches, Batik Art on cotton fabric. Original on sale USD 450. Limited edition prints of 50 available for USD 50 each in size 12x16 inches on high quality Art board paper. All signed and numbered by the artist. This new work was more complex than anything I have ever taken on but I was driven by the love for water lilies. I have always wanted to do a project showing water lilies but could not because of fear of the unknown.

THE RETURN JOUNEY (2013) 22X44 inches. Batik Art on cotton fabric. SOLD This new batik shows one the great sights in Western Uganda of long horn cattle. It shows when they are snaking their way downhill to their respective homes. They were taken there early in the morning to feed by a lone cattle keeper who walks at the end of the line. I wanted to show the time when they are going down at sunset. 

THE KAMPALA OLD TAXI PARK II (2013) 22X34 inches. Batik Art on cotton fabric. Original on sale for USD 300 or 765,000 UGX. Email: lukandwad@yahoo.co.uk One of the most memorable sights in the Ugandan capital Kampala is the taxi park. At the moment the New taxi park, one of the 2 taxi parks is under construction and as a result, there's a lot of congestion in the remaining park also known as the Old taxi park. A number of smaller parks have cropped up in different parts of the city to cater for the increase in number of passengers. A typical Ugandan commuter taxi is a battered 14 passenger Toyota Hiace. There's a lot of vending within the park of mostly refreshments. Recently I have been intrigued by thousands of messages pinned at the back window of most of these taxis. The subject matter varies, from political, religious to simply naming children and spouses. I have tried to include a few in this work. On each of these windows, the owner wants to point out something.

Choose from a wide variety of up to 100 original batik paintings printed on artboard card paper. Size is 4x6 inches and inside they are blank. Each comes with a peel-off envelope. The following are the prices for assorted cards, shipping not included; A pack of 20 cards - 32 USD                 40 cards - 55 USD                 100 cards - 110 USD Ask for a free catalogue at lukandwad@yahoo.co.uk

THE EYES OF A HUNTER (2013)            Cheetahs are the fastest animals on the African plain. It's one of my best animals but up to now I had never taken a step to do a batik painting about them. My fascination is with the sharp eye stare which makes them very effective hunters. This batik is a tribute to this amazing animal. 

ON THE MARKET DAY (2013)  SOLD This new work shows what takes place on a market day in rural Uganda. A familiar sight is a line of men on bicycles carrying baskets and other goods to or from the market. They ride on dusty roads as they converse loudly among themselves covering all kind of topical issues from politics to matters of the bedroom.

THE VARIETY 1 (2013) 34X20 inches THE VARIETY 2 (2013) 34X18 inches I have always been fascinated by seeds of any kind. I have painted sweetcorn and pumpkin seeds in the past and now beans. Beans are particularly interesting as a childhood memory. I remember we used to harvest them and begin a tedious task of removing them from their pods into the source-pan. At the end of the process I used to be and actually I'm still amazed by a great scene of beans of different shapes and colors together in one place. It tends to appear like a fashion competition with each one showing off with the best color. My great lesson with this subject is that despite the variety in color and shape, one thing still remains and that is their nature as beans.

This new work titled CASSAVA GARDEN (2013) is the first in a series where I'm investigating the effect of sunlight on various kinds of vegetation. I've lately been intrigued by the shadows cast as a result of sunlight shining on different parts of trees and from this I saw a rare batik opportunity to do works that show these effects. In this particular batik, this inspiration is right in my garden, so does many of my next projects. I saw another scene from the taxi park  where passengers were going up and down a flight of stairs to and from the park. I took a photograph and was fascinated by the shadows cast on the steps as people moved on them. This is my next project that I'm currently working on.. 

This batik shows a busy street downtown Kampala, Uganda's capital city. It's one in a 5 series project showing the busy spots of downtown Kampala. It's a scene where 14-seater taxis, buses, motorcyclists (bodaboda), and pedestrians jossle for the little space available on the narrow streets. I believe this is the true representation of what it feels like to walk downtown Kampala. It's not easy. The lady crossing the road is taking food to a nearby shopping mall. She'll do her rather dangerous rounds many times crossing the street with plates of food and drinks from 6am in the morning to 6pm in the evening and is paid an equivalent of 1.50 US dollars per day. She eats the left-overs for lunch. Such is the life in downtown Kampala.

This brand new batik 'AFRICAN WOMAN ' (2013) shows my fullfilled desire to escape the pain of making 'black' faces. I have always longed for figurative batik to take a centre stage in my artwork. This new year I'll have more of these and less of the 'black' empty faces. I want my characters to have a facial expression and I think with this picture finished, I'll continue to be successful. 

In this batik titled THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TREES (2013), I was exploring the idea of what is seen through the trees during a sunset. This was an addition to DEEP IN THE WOODS (2012) (below) which had weaverbirds among the trees.

This is my l6th in a series of fish batiks under the title of Fish Journeys. This one is more detailed with the use of lines dominating the painting. These lines are drawn by passing a brush filled with hot wax over the fabric in a linear fashion. As more layers of waxed lines are drawn and dyes added, the picture begins to come out. 

During the festive season, I was busy working on 4 batiks including these 2 and I've just finished the ironing. The underlying idea was to experiment with a small brush dipped in wax to come up with lots of lines to separate color. I had to rewax these lines a number of times for them to still remain visible even after the darker dyes were added.  The goal was to bring a web-like feeling to these batiks and I think I was successful to an extent.