Batik Painting the Ancient Art of India

Batik Painting and How it Prepared:

Batik Painting is another ancient Indian traditional art form that is very famous at present also. This ancient art form is usually done on silk fabrics and cotton. During the preparation of Batik painting, the artists use single, dual and multi-coloured vegetable dyes. After the finished work, the Batik painted fabrics look beautiful, attractive and eye-catching. The artists follow three main processes to complete the Batik paintings. They are dying, waxing and de-waxing.

The peculiarity of Batik Painting:

Traditionally the people decorate the house with beautiful paintings, murals, household linen, wall hangings and scarves. Especially West Bengal, Tamilnadu and Orissa are well-known places for reputed and creative designs of Batik Paintings. The artists print on the cotton cloth using the wax resist technique.

Batik is a Bengali word that means wax writing. This local Indian form of art dates back two thousand years. The artists use wax resists and rice scratches for the printing. Later in the years, the technique of Batik paint comes declined. But the women of the household kept the Batik paint alive as a hobby and revived it in the 20th century. However, the artists of Batik’s paintings needed a good sense of patterns and colours. The motifs used in Batik are elementary, and the characteristic Batik effect is created by wax cracking on the lighter hues and the darker colours through them.

Processes of Batik Painting:

The first process of the paintings is the artists made the cotton cloth drying, ironing and stretching on a wooden frame. In the second process, the artists apply a rough charcoal sketch for the painting. In the third process, the wax is mixed with resin, paraffin and yellow beeswax, and the mixture is poured into a brass-shaped pen called Tjanting. The artist used the pen to colour the space where the artist did not want the colour to appear. These patrons spread the cloth, and the artist tried it for some time and washed it with warm water. This process is called de-waxing. Like this, the fabric was dyed, waxed and de-waxed so many times till the entire design of Batik paint was completed.

For the beautiful designs, the artist used light colours at the beginning and used dark colours at the end. This Batik painting is beautiful and catchy, so these paintings do on wall hangings, saris, shawls etc. These paintings enhanced the rooms and gave extra attraction to the place. Artists are using missions to use structures and styles in numerous ways. Anyway, these paints have a lot of demand, and we can find them in many cloth shops throughout India.