So let me introduce myself. My name is David Lucht and after working as an A.D. in packaging for 15 years my wife and I decided to bag it, move to Mexico and get on the fine art career already. We figured its high time we put up or shut up so here we are, in a house in San Miguel de Allende, trying to make it happen. I do batik painting, in a kind of style I taught myself which requires some tedious wax application (sometimes I wish I had decided on abstract expressionism) but with time and patience produces wonderful effects.

I stumbled on this forum and like the look of the site (I do some web design too, see cowango.com) and after reading some posts, decided to join up. If anyone out there knows of other batik artists, I'd appreciate getting contacts because I'm thinking of putting a book together on "World Batik".

Thanks to the site developers for letting me plug into this node.

Welcome to the forum. :)

Welcome David! Some nice art there at your site. :)

Welcome to the forum David, and I must say those paintings are very very nice. I must admit I am not familiar with Batik painting but it looks very interesting indeed.

Its great to have you on board, and hopefully you find your stay here enjoyable :)

Thanks for the comments. I checked around Steel Dolphin's site some more and found your portfolio of digital painting. That's some very nice work! Absolutely first-rate photo manipulation. I'll have to stick tight to this site and try to comp some of your tricks from your P'shop tutorials. I spent the last ten years or so working with that program (in my former life in the wonderful world of packaging) and after mastering color correction and retouching, I hope to move more in the direction you've taken. I'm especially impressed by your "Digital Mixed" section since the effects/mood you achieve are close to what I'm after with my batik work. Not to pile on the praise too thick (does your hat still fit?) but the website is great too!

Also liked Jeff O's stuff with the pointed irony in "One Small Step" and the other social-comment content mixed with a good dose of wit. Looks like a lot of talented artists haunt these pages!

Welcome aboard :)

Thanks for the kind words David. :) I work with PS/Illustrator and Indesign in my day to day work and it sure is nice to be able to play with it and really open it up with photomanips and such, go beyond its more mundane uses. :)

I dont do them that much any more as I have been working more n my illustration/painting but when i manage to stockpile some more photos I plan on mixing it up again :)

Ditto here David. Thanks very much. I haven't updated my digital artwork page in quite a while since I've also been on a traditional painting kick over the last 6 months or so. Mostly acrylics. A couple of those pieces are posted here and I'll hopefully be finishing a few more canvases before the summer is over. :)

Welcome David......and I wish you all the best with your new career, I just love people who follow thier hearts.....I have always done this ....and why not...we only live once eh!

Welcome, and I'll you'll appreciate this place as much as I have, for people with great tastes in art.

by the way, this piece (http://cowango.com/pages/davepop/firewood.html) is beautiful

Welcome to the site, David. Your work is unique to say the least. Love "Alvin Lee". Loking forward to seeing more.

Like your paintings David. Welcome to SDC. :)

Welcome aboard