Who is Jonathan Evans?
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.
Inspired by his travels and to record his adventures across four continents, he has created and exhibited his work all over the world. 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.
Recently, he has been focusing on the dyeing process and the art of dyeing unusual often complimentary colours. He has been painting large, almost abstract, flowers as well as the cars that he always loves to batik and a series based on a recent trip to Paris.
Jonathan has shown his work in New York City many times, at the Textile Museum in Washington DC. and all over the US as well as at the Mandhir Gallery, London and the Smend Gallery, Cologne, Germany.
He has taught the medium of Batik under the auspices of the Resident Artist Program at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington DC, at the Beacon Gallery, Hastings, UK and at the Smend Gallery.
With his wife Beth, also a batik artist, he has done volunteer work in Mexico and in Haiti. They have taught several groups of women living in poverty the batik process with the goal of setting up cottage industries to produce income. They helped found the Haitian Batik Project and worked with Peace Mexico and Desert Mothers in Mexico. Later this year Jonathan and Beth will be teaching a workshop in St Lucia in the Caribbean and setting up a small industry there.
He currently resides in La Veta, Colorado where he and Beth operate Shalawalla Gallery which features their batik paintings and batik classes in their studio on the premises.
See their website for more info
