Cayman’s leading trio of batik aficionados led an exciting exhibition of their work just recently, titled Back to the Wax Pot and held at Full of Beans café in Pasasdora Place. The Journal catches up with all three to find out more.

Batik is a very particular craft that requires the patient artist to perform a painstaking layering of dye and wax in order to acquire the finished result. Bob McKendrick, Pat Nicholson and Shirley Scott are three local artists who have gone far beyond simply perfecting the practice and are creating some incredibly beautiful batik work, some of which was on show at the recent Full of Beans exhibition.

Bob McKendrik is a true master of the art, having become interested in batik in the Seventies.

“I am an accountant and I used to have to travel to the Bahamas a lot on business. I would have a bit of spare time on my hands after I had visited all the tourist spots, so I began experimenting with batik, initially with acrylic paints and water,” he confirms.

Bob quickly became acquainted with the more usual technique of applying dye to white material and then applying wax to the areas which will remain that colour, followed by more dye and more wax application. It’s a process which requires the artist to have an understanding of the relationship of colours and how they mix, as well as the properties of the wax once it’s applied to the material. It also requires a vision as to how the overall piece will look once it’s complete.

Bob has a sensitive eye that can create incredibly intricate pieces with depth and shade as well as light and colour. ‘Light and Shade’ is a clever piece that draws the viewer into the piece, with delicate blues and purples. Once you view it for a while you realise that Bob has outlined a lamp and shade in the centre of the piece.

“This piece actually began with me tie dying the material, which means I knotted the original white cloth and dyed it so that some of the cloth remained white. I then looked around at home for inspiration and liked the shape of a lamp that I have, so I drew it onto the material. I then layered the colour using a pink dye, waxing in the areas that I wanted to remain blue,” he explains. “Finally I waxed everything except the outline which I coloured black.”

A pleasing crackle of the ink runs through his work, a telltale sign of batik work, where the dye has been deliberately allowed to gently seep between the wax, giving the finished piece a delightful textural quality.

‘Brief Encounter’ is Bob’s study of two butterflies which landed on his arm during a past trip to the Butterfly Farm. “They were originally white butterflies and I did actually create a batik piece based on this; however I also thought it would be interesting to incorporate colour as well, so I dyed the cloth before I began waxing and further dying,” he says.

As always, Bob finished his piece with a black outline which, he says, brings out the contrast in the colours.

Another current stalwart of the art community is Pat Nicholson, although she has only been practicing the art if batik for about six years.

“I don’t draw particularly well but I am drawn to colour so I really enjoy batik,” she says.

Her ‘Big Bamboo’ piece is a great example of the art of batik, employing greens, blues and yellows to great effect.

“I like to gain inspiration from the world around me,” Pat says, “and I have already created a batik study of small shoots of bamboo so I thought it would be fun to study some larger pieces.”

Pat’s ‘Orange Pots’ is a tribute to her pottery days, of which she was an enthusiast years ago and is a vivid celebration of colour, as is ‘Autumn in the Park’ which Pat confirms began as a ‘take your pencil for a walk’ exercise. ‘Fantasy Fish’ is just that, colourful, magical fish created out of her imagination, while “Mr Sun’ is a whimsical lighthearted piece which shows that Pat gains real enjoyment from the art of batik.

Shirley Scott began learning the art of batik with Bob back in the Eighties and she is another artist who says she gains tremendous satisfaction from her work, also enjoying the art of mosaics, ceramics and stained glass work.

“In particular, I love the discipline of batik,” she states. “I enjoy planning every step along the way.”

‘Crayola’ is an exploration of solid colour (like the Crayola crayons) using geometrical designs to lift the piece and add intrigue and depth, while ‘Northerly’ takes her work into a completely different direction.

“This piece is based on a friend’s house in the UK. I took a photo of her house and it looked so peaceful that I really wanted to try and reproduce it in batik,” she says.

Shirley confirms that it took a good deal of effort to sketch out the piece, which is so detailed it looks like a painting.

Elsewhere in the exhibition Shirley shows pieces that are clearly influenced by her love of nature, with a study of parrots and vegetation adding to the exciting mix of work, proving that once you can master a technique, the subject matter is only limited by the artist’s imagination.