Batik by Jonathan & Beth Evans
Visit the Studio! Classes Available
Join us this summer for the first-ever BatikUSA exhibition in La Veta, Colorado!
Some of the most talented batik artists from across the United States are showcasing right here in southern Colorado in celebration of the International Year of Batik. Discover stunning pieces, learn about the artists, and immerse yourself in the unique process of creating batik art, renowned for beauty and craftsmanship.
The public is welcome to attend the opening night event on August 31 from 4 - 9 p.m., at the Estelle Center for Creative Arts where fifteen talented artists will present their pieces. Refreshments and live music can be enjoyed throughout the evening.
The exhibit will be open and artwork available for purchase throughout the month of September.
Come and be captivated by the beauty of batik in the vibrant town of La Veta. We look forward to seeing you there!
THE EXHIBIT WILL BE OPEN UNTIL SEPT 29, THURS.- SUN. 11-4 pm.
The Estelle Center for Creative Arts 105 W. Ryus, La Veta, CO.
to view off hours go Shalawalla Gallery next door
or call 719-742-3453 for an appointment.
Meet Dorothy Bunny Bowen, a talented artist from New Mexico known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here. Don’t miss the chance to see their stunning creations in person! Visit the BatikUSA exhibition at the Estelle Center for Creative Arts throughout September and join us in celebrating the International Year of Batik.
"I started as a painter and art historian. In 1980 I discovered batik, after working as a textile research associate at the Museum of International Folk Art for 10 years.
Batik combined my love for textiles with my training as a painter. Since 1999 my primary medium has been wax resist and dye on silk, the Japanese form of which is Rozome. " ~ Dorothy Bunny Bowen
Meet Deb Jo Jones, a talented artist from Ohio known for their unique style of batik.
"My batik studio is located just west of Cincinnati in Okeana, Ohio, where I create batiks on cotton, silk, watercolor paper and rice paper.
I works from photos, sketches and color plans to transform the light and space of a familiar place through the unique and complex batik process. I also use batik to create mid century designs and fabric collages." ` Deb Jo Jones
Meet Marilyn Salomon, a talented artist from California known for their unique style of batik.
​"Marilyn Salomon's batiks are known for their intricate detail created using the traditional Indonesian process of drawing with hot wax, then dyeing the fabric, her works contain up to sixty dye baths.
Living in Gold Rush Country in Auburn, California, has inspired her love of Western and Native American traditions. Her creations tell the universal story of peoples connection to each other and the earth."
Meet Debbi Sigg, a talented artist from Utah known for their unique style of batik.
"For her personal artistic process, each of Debbi's silk paintings begins with hours of research into the subject matter and the creation of a unique composition. She relies on years of practice and a toolbox of acquired techniques to create her art."
Meet Leigh Herndon, a talented artist from Utah known for their unique style of batik.
"The layering of transparent dyes is joyous to her whether the process is batik, shibori, or rozome which she learned after earning her MFA in Fibers. Later she studied with an artist who studied with the kimono artists in Japan for many years.
Leigh’s award-winning works have been exhibited in numerous juried national and international shows and in more than 15 states as well as the Smithsonian."
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Meet Mary Edna Fraser, a talented artist from South Carolina known for their unique style of batik.
“Photographing from the open cockpit of my family’s vintage plane, wind in my face translates to batiks on silk, distilling the adventure into a moment of visual poetry. From five-story draped sculptures to 14-inch wide Kimono Silks, memories flow like water with layers of wax and dye in the calm of an ancient art form. The expansive interplay of vistas offers intimate meditative prayers for the planet. Flying and photographing threatened regions is my passion."-Mart Edna Fraser
Meet Kiranada Sterling Benjamin, a talented artist from New Hampshire known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
'Kiranada is a master rozome/batik artist with eighteen years of experience in Japan studying with Kyoto textile artists. Author of the seminal volume The World of Rozome: Wax Resist Textiles of Japan, she has exhibited her work in over fifty shows, lectured and conducted workshops in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. A former professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, coordinator of the World Batik Conference-Boston 2005, she is recognized for her exploration of new techniques, her consummate teaching and love of sharing dyeing skills and "hot wax on thirsty cloth". Kira has returned from a three year solitary retreat carrying a deep connection to the forest, to insight, and reflection and how it manifests in art.'
Meet David Lucht, a talented artist from Kentucky known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
“Batik painting presents many technical and artistic challenges and I enjoy the exploration and adventure in pursuing its mastery. Batik’s origins lie in fabric design, so it participates in the world of craft where the object is meant to contribute a sense of grace and beauty to peoples lives. I try to bring forward that tradition of elevating the commonplace and utilitarian object, using it as a support for the imagery I develop to show batik’s potential as a fine art.”-David Lucht
Meet Muffy Clark Gill, a talented artist from Florida known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Muffy Clark Gill is an award-winning artist who has worked in the batik process for almost 40 years. She became acquainted with batik while visiting Kampala, Uganda as a teenager in high school. There she attended an art exposition featuring artwork created in Batik. Smitten with the process, she returned to the states to learn more about this ancient style of artwork. She has a BFA from Boston University in Graphic Design. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists, a professional organization of artists nominated by their peers.
Meet Renata Ferguson, a talented artist from Arizona known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
"I was introduced to Batik in Brazil while I was getting my bachelor degree in arts {around 1994). I moved to USA in 1998 and had a hard time finding the dyes in local stores, in college we had no access to reactive dyes. I gave up batik until 2011 when I met the batik artist Katalin Ehling (here in AZ}. Katalin was no longer teaching batik workshops, but she gave me some valuable information including Beth and Jonathan Evans contact. Summer of 2021 I drove from Arizona to La Veta {Colorado, over 650 miles} to meet Beth and Jonathan, after a few days "batiking" with these two wonderful artists and human beings I was in love with batik again!"
Meet Vito Racanelli, a talented artist from Colorado known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Vito Racanelli is an Italian=American batik artist who resides in Colorado. As a protege of Jonathan and Beth Evans, Vito has learned and embraced batik in its classic form of dye and wax on cloth. Vito attempts to glorify the most intriguing parts of nature which he has encountered throughout his life. His favorite subjects are people, animals, and Italian architecture. Vito is available for commissioned pieces.
Meet Jonathan S. Evans, a talented artist from Colorado known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Jonathan S. Evans has been a full-time Batik artist since 1970, having taught himself the complex process of dyes and wax resist as a schoolteacher in Oxford, UK in his early 20s. He holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Edinburgh. An inveterate gypsy and traveler, he has moved from country to country, living in East Africa, England, Scotland, Spain, Ibiza, the USA, Indonesia and India where he had a home for twenty years. Although he batiks a variety of subjects, his main love and emphasis are portraits.“There is nothing more fascinating and challenging than understanding and portraying people” he says.
Meet Beth M. Evans, a talented artist from Colorado known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Beth M Evans began doing batik in 1989 in Cuchara, Colorado. Specializing in hand painted clothing, she realized an interest in working on textiles and began learning about dyeing. After recalling doing batik in a high school art class, she melted some candles and began experimenting. It was love at first dip and soon she was using the batik medium to create representational batik “paintings”. She finds the batik process an endless challenge and still delights in the image gradually appearing on the cloth with each successive waxing and dyeing. Currently she is working on a pointillist technique in her paintings, studying the color theory attached to the technique and adapting it for the batik medium.
Meet Kristina Trejo, a talented artist from California and Mexico known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
“My mother was a pianist and batik artist. It was at the age of ten that I found my mother’s batik tools in a box and asked her to show me how she created her pieces. Insisting it was too complicated and much too dangerous for a ten-year-old to work with hot wax, she promised to teach me when I was 18. But of course by that time, my mother had passed away and I had long ago forgotten about my desire to learn the technique of batik. One night I had a dream that I had my own batik studio. I didn’t know how to do it, but in my dream I could. After that dream I felt an urgency to do batik for the rest of my life. I bought dyes, fabric, wax—all the materials my mother had used to do her batik but which she had quit doing before I was born. I read the book and taught myself the process"
Meet Doris Thurber, a talented artist from Kentucky known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Doris Thurber is a fiber artist who utilizes vibrant color and a vivid imagination while creating her batik and cloth collage artwork. She loves the power and magic embedded in color, and the ways it can be harnessed to create images that invoke moods or stories. Many of her images emanate from deeply held interests and beliefs.
Her artwork can be found in several public venues in Frankfort, KY and in private collections across the U.S.
Doris is also an arts educator and was one of the founding members of Hands Healing HeArts, now Yes Arts, a non-profit organization which addresses addiction and prevention of substance abuse by providing healthy opportunities and connection through the arts.
Meet Terri Haugen a talented artist from Arkansas known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Award winning self-taught artist, is best known for her Batik paintings, featured on the covers of national magazines such has Yankee and Reader's Digest. She has been feature on HGTV and ABC's Home shows and has written articles for magazines such as Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts. Terri has traveled three continents for inspiration and exhibits. She lived in Paris, attended International Batiks Gatherings in Ghent Belgium, The World Batik Conference in Boston MA and studied Mosaics in Ravenna Italy. Each of Terri's batik paintings reveals a command of materials and techniques; she is considered to be one of America's foremost Batik artists. Terri has mastered the traditional method of over dying and combines that with more modern techniques
Meet Kate Weiss a talented artist from Montana known for their unique style of batik, which you can admire right here.
Kate first discovered batik through a class at a Montana women’s gathering focused on music and art. She spent hours working with others on a 12-foot-tall giant batik puppet who has graced many progressive rallies and marches in Montana in the 15 years since her creation. For Kate batik was an instant love. Kate’s work is mostly on cotton and ranges from the natural world to the mystical and magical. She is currently working on her second commissioned batik crankie for Bozeman Montana’s second annual crankie fest put on by Random Acts of Silliness. (https://www.randomactsofsilliness.com/2024-crankie-fest)
SUMMER HOURS- TUESDAY-SATURDAY10AM-5PM, SUNDAY 11AM-4PM. WE ARE BOOKING SPRING/SUMMER 2025 BATIK CLASSES. SEE CLASSES PAGE FOR DETAILS