Artist Cat Crotchett recently spent two weeks in Indonesia teaching encaustic workshops. R&F donated the paints used during the workshops.
Exterior View of the Workshop Space
Encaustic Palette and Torch
The first 3-day class held at Brahm Tirta Sari 2 in Yogyakarta, Java, explored batik art and how it can be combined with encaustic paint. Cat was “amazed at how quickly both the batik artists and the painters adapted to encaustic painting (and fell in love with it).” The batik artists incorporated canting tools, thin metal tools that are used to create fine lines and patterns. The artists also experimented with batiking caps, or stamps to create texture and incised marks.
Batiking Caps in a Cap Pan
The second workshop held at Taman Budaya in Yogyakarta, Java, and sponsored by Antena Projects, was for practicing Indonesia painters. Cat was amazed at how proficient and productive they were with the medium. “Participants…focused on developing one or two complete finished works of art per day of each workshop. Each of these images was impressive in its conceptual thoughtfulness and formal unity – something quite unusual for a workshop format.”
Ali Incorporating the Canting Tool
An exhibition of Cat’s work at the Gallery at the Culture House Barbarab Segaragunung in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia took place in conjunction with the workshops.
Indonesia Painters Seated Around An Encaustic Palette
In the near future Cat plans to create “a body of work influenced by the experience of the cross-cultural workshops in Indonesia.” In addition an article by Dr. Mary-Louise Totton on Cat’s work and the cross-cultural encaustic workshops will be in Visual Arts International Magazine, a prominent art magazine in Indonesia.
