In honor of the Centennial Celebration of Texas State Parks, the Bullock Texas State History Museum hosted a new traveling art exhibit. The exhibit will travel to several museums later this year, including the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon. I had a short email communication with Texas Monthly about my batik process:

“I am happy to share my watercolor batik process for the painting, View Beyond Dogwood. Watercolor batik is a technique that combines melted wax and watercolors painted on rice / Mullberry paper where wax acts as a resist. I first created a design combining photos of dogwood and the Spanish mission building at Mission Tejas State Park. Then, melted wax is applied to the area where I want to establish the whites and lights in the final painting, for example, the white area of dogwood petals, sunlit leaves, roof, etc. I applied watercolor wet-in-wet washes on rice paper with lighter colors. I worked through to the darkest, using a sequence of wax, paint, and dry. I repeated this process until I achieved the result I wanted. Finally, I placed the painting between blank newspaper ironing to remove the excess wax with heat. I repeat until the excess wax is removed”