The Batuan style originated in the village of the same name, located in Kabupaten Gianyar in Bali, about 10 kilometres south of Ubud. It’s famous for its art and beautiful temples. In one of them, Pura Puseh Desa Batuan, which you have probably seen in numerous tourist guides, Batuan artists arranged a painting school. They help children master the Batuan painting style, hoping to pass on this long-lasting tradition to the new generation. How do they pass on the painting skills to new generations for so long? What is Batuan’s painting style? Artists answered these questions a little bit more.
Batuan style paintings are very intricate and dense and might depict a wide range of scenarios.
Some show a whole village, and viewers need much time to see everything that happens in the picture. The artists used this style to depict religious ceremonies and artists used to paint gods and temples, illustrations of myths, and essential scenes from people’s lives.
As life is changing and progress is inevitable, the stories in the paintings are also evolving. The most intriguing images are the ones showing many small scenes on the same canvas: people participating in the ceremonies and doing household chores, children playing, and sometimes you can even find tourists enjoying their holiday in Bali.
Anything that happens in our lives and minds can be reflected in Batuan paintings.
It takes time and effort to complete a painting like this, and some pieces might take up to one or even two months. The difficulty is that a typical Batuan painting has a lot of small details that require meticulous attention from the artist. Although the procedure sounds quite simple, an artist first draws a painting contour and then chooses one of two techniques or combines them.
Manyunan is just layering paint, making the colour denser and darker to create shades and leaving it pale in the light.
Ngucek is more complicated and requires skill. An artist used two brushes at a time: one brush with ink and one paintbrush with water to shade the ink on the picture.
Even though the Batuan style is proven to have existed a thousand years ago, paintings from those times didn’t survive. Materials used for painting back then were natural, made of minerals, plants, or soot. Later western artists brought new materials that were easier to use and lasted longer.
As time goes, Batuan style transforms, using different materials and telling new stories.
Many children in Batuan village learn how to paint in this style. Their teachers (real artists) say half of these children will become artists in the future. Children bring their worldview when they paint. They don’t want to depict gods and temples, but it’s easy to find cars, UFOs, anime characters, and even a spider-man in their works. As artists preserved the Batuan style for many years, they see it as their duty to pass the tradition to new generations.
Children start drawing Batuan style as a hobby as children all around the world learn to play instruments or dance. But as they develop their skill and paint more and more complicated pictures, they face a choice: do they want to keep developing their skills, or is it not their priority?
The teachers told us that around half of the children decide to take the Batuan artist path. Regardless of how hard it is to finish a single painting, young artists spend long hours perfecting their works and mastering their skills, becoming a part of this thousand years old tradition.
For more information about their art, and details about the 1000 years celebration
