About Silk Painting

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I like to paint on silk, which is to me a beautiful gift from nature, a fibre that has been cultivated for over 3,500 years. The silk painter needs some materials which are familiar to artists in other mediums such as watercolour brushes and stretcher bars, and some that are unique to silk painting, such as gutta, dyes, and, of course, the silk itself. I use French dyes, Dupont brand, because they are very shimmery and bright. For example, their super tinfix dyes can be diluted up to three time and still retain their intensity and brilliance.

I paint on crepe de chine: it is a luxurious surface to paint on, the smoothest and most luxurious of all the crepes. The other silk I use is pongee, which has a smoother surface, and is therefore more suited to paintings with sharp lines. As a silk painter, I use several techniques to create special effects. I use salt crystals to indicate shimmering light; and alcohol to make sharp separation between colours. I can use the alcohol only after the painting is dry; then I can add the next colour and it will not bleed into the colour next to it. Painting colours on wet silk creates soft shapes and patterns. Occasionally I use gutta, made from the sap of the percha tree, which is native to Indonesia.

Gutta allows me to make lines between shapes as it hardens into lines that form little dams between the wet colours, so they cannot blend into each other. The guttta line building technique allows me to paint the layers of misty mountains by separating one row of mountains from another so I can paint each row with paler colour as the mountains recede. All of these techniques are part of my silk painting repertoire.

After the silk painting is finished, I steam the silk and then wash or dry clean it. The steaming process not only sets the dyes permanently and bonds them with the silk, but also develops the colour, bringing out all its brightness and intensity. Once I have completed the finishing process, the silk will regain its natural softness and lustre, and the painting has become an integral part of the silk.

Besides making silk paintings in frames, I also make floral arrangements with imported high-quality silk flowers, original greeting cards (not photos of paintings), and hand painted silk scarves, as well as ties for men (cravattes).