P.S. 2013-2014

Art Masterpiece: Australian Aboriginal Art

Keywords: Aborigines, Dot Painting, Shape,

Color and Line

Grade: 4th – 6th

Activity: Aboriginal Bark Painting – Project 1

Aboriginal Hand Print Design – Project 2

Objectives: To gain an understanding about

Aboriginal culture and the purpose

behind their Storytelling Art.

Background of Australian Aborigines:

In Australia, the native people are known as Aborigines. They migrated to Australia 50,000

years ago from African/Asian origins. Some Aboriginal tribes live primitively today as they did

thousands of years ago. Aborigines use art as a way to communicate and tell stories much like

the ancient cave artists. These stories teach lessons about life, including birth, love, food

gathering, hunting, warfare, marriage and death. The storytellers would use a combination of

art forms such as painting, singing, music and dancing. Didgeridoo players often play music while

the storyteller tells the story. Sometimes stories were more sacred, and only certain members

of the tribe were allowed to know the contents. The artist would cover the picture with dots as

a way to camouflage the meaning. Only those in the know were able to decipher the hidden

pictures within.

P.S. 2013-2014

Dot Painting is the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines in the Western Central Desert

of Australia. They would use these Dot Paintings as a guide to tell their story. Aboriginal artists

would use homemade paints and pencils to create the images on sheets of bark. The artist would

often spend more time selecting and treating the bark and his paint palette and brushes, than

he would spend on the actual painting process.

Sheets of reddish bark are removed from trees during the rainy monsoon season to reveal a

thin fibrous layer. This sheet was cured by fire and flattened under heavy rocks. Bark painters

of long ago would work with basic earth pigments: red, black, yellow and white. These were

collected from various natural forms, such as: flowers, grasses, dirt, crushed seeds, etc. They

were mixed with a fixative such as honey, flower juice, bees wax or egg yolk.

Brushes are made from strips of stringy bark or green twigs. These were shaped into bristles

by whittling or chewing the tips. Artists use several different shaped brushes for one painting.

Today bright colors are more common through the use of acrylic paints, but traditional dot

painters still use natural pigments.

Discussing the Prints: Encourage students to describe the works of art

What do you see?

Can you see shapes that have been hidden in the dots?

What story might the Aboriginal artists try to convey?

While discussing the colors chosen by the artist, ask students what they think the artist

may have used long ago, in place of the acrylic paints?

Project #1: Aboriginal Bark Painting

Supplies:

Pencils

Half a Sheet of a 9”x12” Colored Construction Paper, various colors (cut to 4 ½ x 6”)

9x12 Sheets of Brown Construction Paper

Australian Animal Templates

Scissors

Glue

Tempera Paints (red, yellow, black, white, maybe orange also)

Q-tips

Process:

Demonstrate the use of cotton swabs to create dots. Swabs are to be used like a rubber stamp,

please advise students to NOT rub or use Q-tips as a paint brush.

Allow students to choose a piece of the colored 4 ½” x 6” construction paper. Have students trace

whichever animal they wish using a template, or draw out a simple shape of an Australian animal.

Demonstrate on white board some basic animal shapes.

Hand out brown paper (bark).

Next, cut out the animal shape and glue onto the center of the brown paper. Students can then

begin to use the cotton swabs to outline the animal figure with dots. Use only one color for each

completed outline. Create several outlines (with different colors each) working their way towards

the edges of the paper. See sample.

P.S. 2013-2014

Project #2: Aboriginal Hand Print Design

Supplies:

9”x12” Black construction paper, 1 per student

Construction Paper Scraps (large enough to make a hand print template)

White Tempera Paint

5 Atomizer Bottles (spray), 1 per table or 5 at a work station

Oil Pastels

Scotch Tape

Scissors

Pencils

Newspaper to cover tables

Prior to Lesson:

Mix white paint in atomizer bottles. Use two parts paint to one part water 2:1. More water can

be added if the paint begins to clog.

Process:

Using construction paper scraps, have students trace and cut out their hand print

Loop a piece of tape to make it sticky on both sides, attach tape to paper hand and then

to the center of the black paper

Students can decorate around the hand stencil using oil pastels. They should focus on

creating Aboriginal designs with a variety of lines, patterns and dots (see symbols page)

With the atomizer bottle, spray short bursts of paint around the hand stencil until the

outline is visible and you like the affect

Remove the hand stencil and allow to dry

Recommendation: If possible, while students are painting, you may choose to play didgeridoo

music in the background. Ask your teacher for assistance to download on the classroom

computer.

P.S. 2013-2014