Transcript Aboriginal Dot Art Alt pptx - Rosa Parks Elementary PTSA

Aboriginal Dot Art
 Art produced prior to the development of written
language or other methods of record-keeping
 The main way early people communicated
 Prehistoric Art ends and Ancient Art begins when a culture
becomes literate. Thus, the end-date for “Prehistoric Art”
varies greatly between different parts of the world.
Europe
Asia
Africa
Australia
Human habitation is estimated to have begun 42,000 - 48,000 years ago
Aborigines
The Indigenous (Native) People of Australia
Aborigines have existed for over 40,000 years
Today with only 150,000 Aborigines left, they represent just 1% of the
population of Australia
Traditional Aborigines were hunter / gatherers
They have a complex oral culture (no written language)
Their spiritual values (and art) are based on reverence for the land and
a belief in “Dreamtime”
The Dreamtime
is the Aboriginal understanding of the
world, of it's creation,
and it's great stories.
The Dreamtime is the beginning of
knowledge, from which came the laws
of existence.
For survival these laws must be
observed. The Dreaming world was the
old time of the Ancestor Beings.
Australian Indigenous Art is the oldest unbroken
tradition of art in the world. It includes:
Stone arrangements
Bark painting
Rock painting
Carvings and sculpture
Aerial desert "country" landscape
Weaving and string-art
Papunya Tula “Dot painting”
The oldest Aboriginal art examples (rock painting) are estimated
to be up to around 40,000 years old.
They predate both Lascaux (Yellow Horse) and Chauvet cave art
(the earliest known art in Europe) by at least 10,000 years.
One of the classic styles of Aboriginal artwork is the
dot paintings utilizing thousands of painted dots
Why Dots?
 Aboriginal Dot Art originated in the desert sand using natural
substances on the ground .
 Look down from a cliff or hill at the desert landscape and you see
clumps of growth (dots) scattered about a red landscape.
 The dots in the Dot Art, reflect this perspective (Dreamtime) and serve
to both communicate and conceal “Dreaming” stories.

“Dreaming” explains the creation of
life, people and animals – in essence,
their religion.

A Dreaming story is passed on
protectively as it is owned and is a
form of "intellectual property".

The color and the placement of the
dots are important to depicting the
visible message and camouflaging the
hidden message.
 Dot Painting or Aboriginal Dot Art originated in the
desert sand using natural substances on the ground.
 Traditional Aboriginal colors include yellow, brown,
red and white .
Today, acrylic paint is
applied to canvas with
various diameter sticks
dipped into a paint and
then applied one dot at a
time.
The paint used may be
flat or highly textured
(high level of viscosity)
with a very raised
surface.
 Artists may overlap or 'enclose' dots within other larger dots, or they may be
closely joined to give the appearance of lines, and even dotted so densely that
they create a flat colored area.
 However to be a 'dot' painting, the dotting method must still be visible.

Kangaroo

Tasmanian Devil

Dingo

Koala

Kookaburra

Emu

Platypus

Using black paper, brightly colored Acrylic paints, and
Q-tips, toothpicks, straws and matchsticks;
create your own Aboriginal Dot Painting

Select a native Australian animal as your main feature


Cover at least 85% of the paper with dots
Leave blank the areas that you want to remain black