paintings

Beautifully hand-painted on cotton fabric, a Balinese-style Buddha is serene. Artist Ida Bagus Lawa Bargawa works in traditional batik methods to render the figure of Buddha with his eyes downcast and his hand raised in a blessing.

Poised on one foot, a graceful dancer whirls to a dance with the Damba tribe of northern Ghana. Dressed in a single cloth of batik, he wears beads and feathers on ankles and arms, and holds a traditional tool covered in kente cloth. Emmanuel Atiemoh Yeboah creates the exquisite scene in silhouette.

Arrives with a ceiba wood frame.

Shown in silhouette, a graceful woman balances two coconuts on her head and holds three more in her hands. Emmanuel Atiemoh Yeboa portrays her in oils on calico cotton, adding cutouts of batik for her dress. The composition arrives in a frame of ceiba wood.

Emmanuel Atiemoh Yeboah celebrates the spirit of cooperation that prevails in West African families where even the children help out. He depicts a young woman who leans lovingly toward her three youngsters. All carry bowls or baskets on their heads as they walk home from the market. Yeboah works in oils on calico, adding cutouts of batik cloth for the gowns and turbans. Other details, such as grass, are created with pen and ink. The composition arrives in a frame of tweneboa wood.

Seated on a tiger, Shiva lifts a hand in blessing. Regarded as the celestial overlord of deliverance through destruction, Shiva has his customary trident by his side as a show of divinity. The hissing cobra that slithers around his head symbolizes his potent divine destructivity, and his matted hair is thought to contain the flow of the Ganges River. Shiva is one of the most complex gods of India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. He is both the destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrathful avenger. Unaffected by the whims of the world, he is innocent and guileless, pure of mind and heart. He does not adorn his body with jewels or flowers — he mats his hair and dresses in animal hide.

Ida Bagus Lawa Bargawa is a master of the batik technique, sketching the figures by hand and applying the wax resist freehand, which requires great skill. A different dye bath is required for each separate color in his elegant and complex batik "painting."