Handpainted silk ballerina with wax hot and cold

Today I was thinking about a silk painting I did in France in June 2007.


In the photo above, I had drawn the design (copied from a photo) onto white silk (24x24inches) with a very soft pencil, and started by adding cold wax to block out the parts of the painting which I wanted to remain white. You can see parts of this in the skirt and the ballet shoe.

In the photo above, you can see the many uses of cold wax and hot wax in the almost-rain-like drops in the bottom left corner (cold wax), which had been gone over with shades of blue and water in several layers. The hot wax was used in the fine detail in the skirt as well as the darker bottom right corner.

Above : you can now see the large patterned drops, some had been white, some were painted a soft pink on top of the white, then new cold wax applied, in a multi-layering technique.

Above: you can now see more detail of the bottom right corner, where a fan brush (in French, brosse eventail) with hot wax was used to make the almost-circular fine sweeping brushstrokes. Again, the wax was applied in a multi-layering effect to bring out the shadows and lightness to create a three dimensional feel to the silk painting.

This entire painting was so different from anything I had painted before - I was in a small master class (only 2 other people) with Lydie Ottelart in Chambon-sur-Lignon for the annual French silk painting festival. Lydie's a professional silk artist who uses the wax techniques to great effect, and I had a wonderful time! Thank you Lydie!!

I'll upload more photos from this trip to France over time to share with you.

Cheers
Teena!

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