Batik by Marina

The Batik Route

To see my Journey in Batik, click the link above.

Portraits in Batik

I was introduced to batik in 1975, when I was twelve, after my art teacher returned from a short training course in this, then, unfamiliar technique. I was immediately intrigued and captivated. There was something compelling about the combination of hot wax and dye… the sense that an image could emerge slowly, in layers, held within the cloth itself.

At home, I set up a simple workspace, using an old electric slow cooker to melt the wax, and began what would become a lasting engagement with the medium. Batik stayed with me through my art school years and into my early career, forming the foundation of my work as both an illustrator and a fine artist.

_{Batik of Amy in woodland valley. Batik, 2003}

From an early age, I had been drawn to portraiture… to the challenge of observing and translating a face. Batik offered a new way of approaching this, allowing me to commit line and form directly onto fabric. It was not an easy process. The medium is unpredictable and often unforgiving; wax can spill or spread unexpectedly, altering the image in an instant. Yet over time, through patience and repetition, I developed a fluency that allowed me to work more instinctively, embracing both control and chance within the process.

I began creating large-scale figurative pieces, often using friends, family, or myself as models. These works became a way of exploring presence… how a person might be held within an image, not only through likeness, but through gesture, colour and atmosphere.

Lillian as Daphne, batik on cotton,122 cm x 182 cm. Self portrait as Ophelia, batik, 122 cm x 259 cm.

My first commission, a double portrait of two young brothers, marked an important moment. It required me to translate not only physical likeness, but the character and relationship between them, drawing on elements of their surroundings, symbolism and colour. The process was collaborative, shaped in part by the boys’ own ideas, and this exchange became central to how I approached portraiture thereafter.

Portraits of my Nephew and my son.

Over the years, drawing people has remained a constant in my work. Batik, with its distinctive qualities, continues to offer a different language for portraiture… one that resists perfection, and instead allows something more nuanced to emerge. It is perhaps this quality that has carried through into Marina’s Muses, where the aim is not only to represent, but to re-encounter… to hold a sense of the person within the making.