Five of us took a batik painting class one day from Aib Batik in Railay Beach, a short boat ride from where we were staying on Ton Sai Bay. The owner, Aib, had some of his work up on the wall – they were fantastic! He said that he has one of his pieces on display at an art museum in Canada. He let us look at his pieces and some pictures to get ideas while he stretched some muslin on frames for our canvases. When he was done, he handed us each a blank canvas and a pencil and told us to make a drawing. What?! I don’t know how to draw. This starting point was the hardest part of the whole day!
Well, we muddled through our sketches, and they all turned out pretty good. I decided to draw a nature scene – I thought it would be pretty hard to mess up leaves and rocks. My husband drew a Buddha, and the others did flowers, sea life, and a beach sunset. Then we took turns applying the parrafin wax. You draw it on over your pencil lines and it serves to keep the paint from running together later in the process. The wax is hot and is applied with a sort of fountain pen thing. I had a hard time and left some unwanted drips on my muslin – oh well, they might end up looking like rocks.
After lunch on the beach, we began painting. This part was definitely the most fun, and brought me back to childhood days of finger painting. You paint either a couple colors on a section and then smudge them together with your finger to blend them, or you can apply water first and then smudge in the paint for a lighter shade. Water also helps fix mistake if you drip some paint where you don’t want it – just add water, smudge it around, then paint over it – ta da! It is really a very forgiving medium.
When we left in the late afternoon. Aib would finish off our pieces by soaking them in a solution that would set the color. Then there was a process to remove the wax. He did this during the night, and we picked up our finished pieces the next day. This was a really fun day (but maybe not for those who don’t like staying in one spot for long times). I’d like to try it again sometime – maybe I can try it at home.