The works described as painting on silk using the batik technique Karina Rzendkowska fits in a narrow circle of contemporary European painters who use one of the oldest techniques of colorful decorating of fabrics. Creativity Silesian artist is original, exclusive part of this circle, adapted for the needs of European art of the xx century. the technique, developed earlier than a long time, the islanders of Indonesia. Thanks to Dutch trade, in the XVII century. came to Europe the first specimens batik fabric from Java. XIX century-a time of wide interest batik as a technique.

The batik technique consists, in its basic version, in covering with a thin layer of wax those places on the fabric that we want to protect against the effects of the dye. After applying wax, the fabric is immersed in paint. Repeating this treatment you can get further colors and patterns determined by the wax reserves. The classic Javanese batik was more complicated: multiple immersion of the fabric in acid baths, castor oil, leaching, washing, drying, drawing with wax, dyeing.

The Silesian artist treats the batik technique unorthodoxically. She applies a layer of wax to the silk pig iron, breaks the wax after settling and introduces a dye. Often there is only one: black, sometimes using two; the second (and in the order of introducing the first) is sometimes gray. In Rzendkowska’s technique of batik, three colours would be very prodigality with a consciously limited, disciplined range of colours, in which the vast majority of her works on silk are maintained.

After the wax has been removed and pressed, the fabric remains in one or two-coloured form with white clearances in those parts where the dye has not arrived. Now the painterly interference begins: contour, extraction of facial features from spots and veins, touching with colour.