New Costume Design

This is a design for a new surjan but made with black velvet and kebaya brocade lace of my batik kraton design.  The location of scene is Pura Mangkunegaran, the second royal house in Surakarta.

Mix and match

Japanese Kimono and Javanese Belt

Bengawan Solo

This is a re-construction of the boat that used to go down the Bengawan Solo River from the Royal Kraton Palace in Surakarta, Indonesia to East Java and the North Coast.  There are only various figureheads surviving now in 2 museums in Solo.

Happy time at the beach in Java

I went to Pantai Ngobaran and also Parangtritis.

exhibits at Kraton Surakarta's museum

We were the exhibits that day among all the curious Indonesian students!

Old Time Javanese Setting at Kotagede

back from vacation

I had a wonderful trip and will post more soon.  Here is just a peek of what I did!

holiday

rework of abandoned image

I finally completed a painting that was started a few years ago but then abandoned.  Now the figure is done with amazing intricate European lace shirt and batik kain with kawung pattern.  The background is again my favourite place N'dalem Gamelan Hotel.  This is the final painting before my Java trip this year.

A Male Peacock

Labuhan Parangkusumo

new clothes from designers in the making

An Indonesian fashion designer is making these outfits for me and the clothes use traditional batik and lurik.

Gua Langse fantasy

This painting is inspired by the story of the Swan King, Ludwig II and his Grottoes.

new indonesian paintings

Paintings of 2 of strongest forces in Indonesia: Volcanoes and the Southern Sea!

new collection of batik made into shirts

These are the new shirts cut from kain batik collected from Bogor, Solo, Yogya.  I like them all.

New batik design

I have finished the new major kain phytocrene for Batik Komar to work on in 2014.  Now I am working on a stole design of Phytocrene that is based on partly my botanical illustration and an old one that was done in Wallace's old book.  It will be a long selendang.  But I have no idea who I can give it to produce as it is a most complex work that needs supervision every step.
Let's see what results I get from Batik Komar and Hartono in 2014 before I made a decision.

Batik

There is my painting from 1995 with the strangely beautiful light green colour.  I love this green since then and now my shirt from batik komar is this green with wayang motif.

surjan

I am wearing surjan as part of my normal everyday clothings now. 

Phytocrene palmata botanical illustration is done

Here it is my major work of once a year!
The painting is more graceful and melancholy compared to the one of P. macrophylla.  The inflorescence is longer, but paler with less details.
I still have a small landscape scene of Kebun Raya Bogor with P. macrophylla as subject to paint.  But I think I will start to think about the next design of batik for Batik Komar to make.  It is going to be more different than the last one which is more like painting.  This one, I wanted to have it more like an overall pattern with simple colours, so more universal appeal to Indonesians.

wagashi wagashi

Lovely Sweets from Japan!