BY DAN CRAIG
ARTFULLY yours
Renee Angela Filice
Ancient Art Form
Goes Contempory
80
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
O
riginating in China over 2,000 years ago, silk
painting is an art form that involves applying
colored pigment to silk cloth. Silk paintings of
the modern era are said to have begun when the
art form was taken up by students and French
teachers at the Hanoi College of Fine Arts in the 1930s. Using
a combination of dyes and techniques developed in Europe and
Asia, silk paintings can now be found all around the world. This
enduring art form captured the imagination of local artist Renee
Angela Filice when she began exploring it ten years ago.
“I couldn’t get the vibrant colors I wanted out of water-
color and found that painting on silk achieved the results I was
seeking,” Renee recalled. Today, the art she creates in her Morgan
Hill studio focuses on silk painting, and she has expanded her
painting repertoire to include pastels.
Painting on silk involves technical expertise not found in
most art mediums. The silk fabric is stretched on a temporary
frame before liquid dyes are brushed on much like watercolors.
A substance referred to as gutta or wax can be applied to the silk
as a “resist” to prevent the dyes from running outside an object.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
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