BATIK ART BY LUKANDWA DOMINIC

This weekend, I'm challenging myself with painting a batik inspired by Masai necklaces (one of many I've done before). Whereas I've previously been using a multicolor approach, this time I aim to use one color theme RED with varying shades and tones. The end product I hope will be a series of necklaces in a bundle separated by light and dark red, yellow, brown and black shades. Doing what I enjoy doing Waxing before dyeing with Red 3 Having added Red 3, this batik is slowly coming to life.

Finally I've been able to finish this little batik titled THE KING (2010) 15"X15". I started this project 2 weeks ago and am already pleased with the result. I wanted to surround the king with riches and glamour as he sat on his throne. I was trying to portray him as a lonely chap despite all the riches. As I did this picture I remembered an incident one morning in 2005 watching a big SUV carrying the prince of Toro Kingdom to school. At the time he was referred to as the youngest king in the world, he was seated in the back with an armed policeman and a driver. I couldn't help but to think that he was lonely despite all the royal treatment he was getting. This batik is not for sale.

I was seated at the back seat of a taxi when I saw a group of ladies arguing at a fruit market. I was able to observe intently because of a traffic hold up we were in. One of them nodded as she pulled out her pulse and handed over a pink shilling note. At this moment the saleslady was beaming with a smile as she waved them off. One of them lifted a bunch of bananas and the others followed her to a waiting car a short distance infront of us. What I didn't paint in this picture is that the sales lady at the stall began acting in a way that showed something was wrong. She was keenly inspecting a pink shilling note flipping it over and holding it up. Our taxi began to move on behind a line of other vehicles, one of which belonged to the ladies who had bought a bunch of bananas at the stall. Then suddenly the sales lady came with the note in her hand shouting that the money was a counterfeit. The line began moving faster and she was banging on the trunk but the car did not stop. As we...

Deep in the greenery of Luweero is a quiet place known as New Hope. I went this week on an invitation to do a series of batiks describing the classical scenes of this place. Armed with my camera, pencil and paper, i set out to explore this vast place dotted with tall trees all around. There is a huge football ground (below) infront of 3 classroom blocks and part of my assignment was to draw children playing and shouting in this field. On this day the field was empty, so i sat there imagining that they were there. It was interesting to find out as you walk that New Hope is like a big circle with 7 spikes coming off it. In the centre of the circle are the 3 classroom blocks and the football field. Each spike is a road with a name that leads to a "home" that has the same name. A "home" consists of 5 well built huts; 4 huts serving as dormitories on the side and 1 communal hut in the middle. Am supposed to do a batik showing this arrangement. I'll present al...

In this brand new batik THE ROAD INTO BLUE HILL VILLAGE (2010) 20"x33", I wanted to do something that i have never done, something different. I imagined a peaceful place where people lived in little huts on a hillside surrounded by rivers on one side and blue hills on the other. However i didn't want to put in people, just the scenery. My favorite color is blue so i can't stop looking at this batik and thanking God for the work of my hands.

I took this photograph from one of the buildings surrounding the old taxi park in Kampala. I liked the formation made by the umbrellas. There's a trader inside each umbrella selling all sorts of stuff, from stationary to underwear. They are strategically located at the end of a long concrete staircase which brings in people on their way to board taxis going to different parts of the city and country. The closeness of the umbrellas says much about the people working inside them. Once you reach there, you not only realise that they deal in similar merchandise, but also they tend to be discussing a topic among themselves.These discussions are merely shouts amidst the noise from the park. The topics range from politics, cheating wives and husbands, fake pastors to a passerby whose tummy reminds them of corrupt policemen. Such is the endless inspiration i get whenever i pass through the taxi park.