Silk Painting - History meets Contemporary by Rose
For those that are new to silk painting here is a little history and explanation about silk techniques.
Traditional silk painting dates back over 2000 years. Originating from China, the Chinese Artisans used to prepare silk cloth by beating it till smooth, then they could apply colour. Some of the original materials used would have been things like handmade animal hair brushes, inks mixed with soot and glue, or mineral pigments such as, vermilion, azurite and malachite. Ancient Chinese artists created works of art that have survived centuries, although the richness of the minerals may have dulled over time.
Today dyes are techniques have developed combining ideas from the Eastern and Western cultures. Silk paintings are made all over the world.
Silk painting differs to paintings on cotton canvas or paper. The artist needs to consider more than just the placement of pigments but also control its movement. In this way it shared similar qualities to watercolours, unrestricted, the ink or dyes will flow freely on the silk, creating soft and diffused artwork.
Three stages of silk painting, left to right; Copper and Gold Gutta outline, silk ink/dye added to flowers, finished work including background colour. Original Art by Rose Hosken
To create boundaries to stop the spread of inks and dyes, water-based resists or Gutta (a rubbery cement) can be used. Imagine a stain glass window, these boundaries are like the lead between sections and colours, when the outline dries dyes are then applied. Some resists can become permanent fetchers other can be washed away to reveal the colour below. Alternatively, the silks surface may be primed to reduce the dyes ability to bleed.
There is a wide range of techniques that watercolour artists use that can be applied to silk painting such as using, salt (table salt or rock salt), water, gutter to mask areas, wet into wet etc… and like watercolour, Silk painting has rules that some consider ‘mistakes’ but others use to create unique styles.
Next Blog
Designing a Silk Scarf : Part 1
I will talk through how I go about gathering ideas and then taking them to create a design that can be translated into a silk scarf. - Part 2: how I layout the design out and work out colours etc..