The Art of Dikki Van Helsland-Batik

Dikki Van Helsland has a great love of nature and it shows in her beautifully rendered artwork. She is a batik artist who uses this ancient technique to bring to life the desert animals and landscape that she loves. Batik, with its distinctive crackle pattern, is the art of creating images on fine cotton cloth using dye and melted wax as a resist. As colors are dyed into the cloth they are either preserved with the resist or merged with other dye colors to create an almost endless range of color. When you meet Dikki, it’s obvious that she has a zest for life and it shows in her paintings.

Born in Hungary her travels ultimately brought her to the Southwest where she settled in Southern Arizona. She and her husband enjoy their beautiful “mini ranch” together and have created a lovely and artful property filled with flowers, hummingbirds and their beloved Spanish Barb horses.

Dikki is a member of the Tubac Center of the Arts and participates in the Open Studio Tour each spring. Opening her amazing workshop and studio to the public, she gathers up her artist friends and colleagues and puts on a dazzling show of batik, pottery, acrylic and watercolor. Her visiting collectors get a double treat of delightful art and a stunning garden landscape with acres of surrounding desert vistas.

Dikki graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA from Old Dominion University in 1982 while her husband served at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. She started working in Batik in 1974, winning awards in several juried shows. She has exhibited in galleries and shows in Metz, France, Germany, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and Arizona. Dikki has participated in both juried and non juried shows such as the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Show, the Neptune Festival, many Arts in the Park, and the Tubac Center of the Arts. She has taught Batik and has participated in innovative Batik workshops around the country.

While living in Maryland, Dikki was a multi-media independent contractor for a company that built fine restaurants and offices. During that time she designed glass partitions, created faux finishes, murals, silk screened table tops, designed and made draperies, and did some restoration work. For the past 20 years, Dikki has been doing house portraits in Batik for a real estate company in Washington D. C.

Dikki’s work is not to be missed and she is currently represented at Desert Artisan’s Gallery in Tucson, Az

Desert Artisans’ Gallery
6536 E Tanque Verde
Tucson, AZ
520-272-9302
DesertArtisansGallery.com

All images and text submitted by the artist - used with permission.

Dikki Van Helsland demonstrating her Batik technique