Exotic Art

The intriguing and exotic art of batik painting was demonstrated by an Indonesian expert Bambang Oetoro during a week-long exhibition of Mr Oetoro's paintings, held at the Art Gallery recently. One of the world's leading exponents of batik, he drew large crowds to his daily lectures, while the 10 only places at his Wednesday night workshop were quickly snapped up. Batik requires much time. The design is applied to the cotton cloth in hot wax. The first colour fast cold water dye is then applied. After that the wax is melted off with hot water. More wax is then applied — over the already dyed parts, to prevent doubling up, and also over any other undyed parts required for further colouring. This is carried on until the required picture and colours are complete. It is not as complicated as it sounds, but if you've got the time — you are away like nobody's business! On this page are four of Bambang Oetoro's exotic paintings — some of which took a week to make - and cost from $65 to $135.