Aboriginal Art, Part I- Bark Painting

Aborigines have lived in Australia for thousands of years. They are the natives of Australia, just like Native Americans are the natives of the U.S. Aborigines have a long history of creating beautiful art that shows their beliefs, Australian animals, and even the weather that is typical of parts of Australia.

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting about the art of the Aborigines.

A lot of Aboriginal art shows the beliefs of the native Australians. The Aborigines believe that magical creatures lived on earth long before humans did. These creatures created the earth from flat land. Aborigines believe that all the land forms were created in the shapes of animals. For example, rivers were created in the shape of a snake.

In northern Australia, in an area called Arnhem Land, Aboriginal artists often paint on bark. The artists strip the bark off of eucalyptus trees. They let the bark dry and then paint on the inside of the bark. They use natural colors like brown, yellow, white, and orange.

The patterns and designs used in bark painting have been around for a long time. They were painted on bodies during rituals and used to decorate logs during certain ceremonies. Aboriginal artists began painting on pieces of bark about 100 years ago.

The artists paint scenes about the way the land was created. These paintings usually include animals because many of the Aboriginal myths were about animals.

The Aborigines also have myths about spirits who were so skinny they could be broken by wind. They lived in caves and under rocks where they were safe from the wind. They taught the Aborigines to hunt and to paint. These spirits, called Mimis, are found in many Aboriginal bark paintings.

Some paintings show constellations. The Aborigines see different pictures than we do when they look at the stars, though. Their constellation paintings often include animals, too.

You will also see paintings of footprints and paw prints. This is because the Aborigines are good at tracking animals and they are good hunters. The Aborigines hunt for food so hunting is very important to them.

Check out this gallery of Aboriginal bark painting from Arnhem Land.

Tomorrow, create your own Aboriginal bark painting!

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Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland by Cindy Neuschwander

I waited until Saturday to post this week’s Fabulous Fiction Friday post not because I forgot, but because I wanted to tell you about a book that is not related to art. Gasp.

But since we were talking about angles yesterday, I thought the story of a knight who uses angles to complete a quest would be a great choice for this week’s book.

Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland, written by Cindy Neuschwander and illustrated by Wayne Geehan, is the story of Radius and his quest to find his neighbor, King Lell. Armed with only a circular medallion (a compass), Radius travels through a cute little town full of houses whose roofs connect at small angles. He then makes his way through the mountains of Obtuse. Finally, he must solve a series of angle-related challenges to make his way through the castle to rescue King Lell.

This book is full of math puns (which I love), and even includes two dragons that belong to King Lell (the “pair of Lell’s”).

This is a fun story and a great introduction to angles.

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Art Angles

I've been working on a lesson plan for one of my classes and I thought you might be interested in some of the materials I've been preparing. The lesson is meant to teach 3rd graders to indentify right angles, acute angles, and obtuse angles. One of the activities I've been readying is a set of note cards with pictures on them. In the pictures, I've traced some of the angles and numbered them. The students are to tell whether each angle is right, acute, or obtuse. They are then to label each angle ABC. My note cards will be laminated so the students can label them and then erase them. This means I'll be able to reuse them.

Some of my images are photographs of objects like trees, fenses, and planes. Some, of course, are pictures of artwork. The artwork is below. If you want to use the images, copy them into a word document and resize them so they fit on note cards.

In order: 1. John James Audubon's Flamingo, 2. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Girls at the Piano, 3. Henri Matisse's Jazz, 4. a Greco-Roman bronze sculpture called Boy with Thorn, 5. Gustave Courbet's Cliffs Near Etretat, 6. an Egyptian sculpture of Akhenaten, 7. Andre Derain's The Turning Road, 8. and a color field painting by Piet Mondrian.

Enjoy!

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P.S.

I love when you all do my job for me! First Michelle with the project, then, this morning, my mom sent me a link to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. If you live in Massachusetts, check it out. I'd love to read comments from anyone who has ever been to this museum.

Create Your Own Eric Carle Inspired Valentines

On Friday I recommended one of Eric Carle’s picture books, Draw Me a Star. Eric Carle is such a fantastic author and illustrator. He wrote and illustrated The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Tiny Seed, and he illustrated Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. And there are tons more. If you haven’t read any of his books, please do so. You will be delighted.

Michelle left a comment about the slide shows on Eric Carle’s website that shows how he paints his tissue papers and how he creates his pictures. I had not discovered those, so thanks!

She also linked to a photo of a piece of artwork she created following Carle’s instructions. It’s gorgeous. Make sure you check it out.

Carle also wrote and illustrated You Can Make a Collage: A Very Simple How-to Book. In this book, put out by Klutz, Carle shows you step-by-step how to create collages using painted tissue paper. The book comes with 72 painted tissue papers to create your own masterpieces with, and the book is full of great ideas for beautiful artwork.

I was inspired by all of this and thought, since Valentines Day is coming up, we might like to make our own Eric Carle inspired cards. Mine came out looking lovely and they weren’t too difficult to make, though it did take time and patience!

Supplies Needed:

Paints
Paintbrush
White Tissue Paper
Small Container
Water
Heart-shaped Tracers
Scissors
Construction Paper
Mod Podge or White Glue thinned with water
Foam Brush

Cover your workspace! I’m serious about this. The paint WILL bleed through the tissue paper.

Lay your tissue paper flat on your workspace

Choose a background color. Squirt some of that paint into your container and mix with about the same amount of water. Use quick, light brush strokes to cover your tissue paper with the paint. If you brush too hard you’ll tear your tissue paper. If this happens, it’s okay. You won’t need every inch of the tissue paper. Just keep going.
Let your tissue paper dry. Eric Carle recommends using this time to paint more sheets of tissue paper in different colors. I only used one sheet but you may want more than one pattern or color. Your tissue paper will need to dry for about 30 minutes.

Choose a second color. Mix the paint with water and brush parts of the tissue paper with it. I painted white slashed across my tissue paper. You may choose to paint zig-zags, dots, or swirls.

Let the tissue paper dry again.

Choose a third color. Mix with water and paint on a new pattern.
I used four colors but you may decide to use only three or try five. It’s all up to you and your imagination. Just remember to let your tissue paper dry after each new layer of paint.
When your finished tissue paper is dry, trace hearts of different sizes onto your paper. Try to fit as many hearts as you can. Carefully cut out the hearts.
Choose construction paper, fold it in half, and cut it into two cards. Repeat until you have as many cards as you wish to make.

Use your foam brush to brush Mod Podge onto the front of your card. White glue mixed will water will also work, but your card will not lay as flat. Stick your hearts in place. Gently brush another layer of Mod Podge over the hearts. Cover the entire front of your card with Mod Podge to make it smooth.
Repeat until you have decorated all of your cards.

Write special Valentines Day messages on the insides of the cards and give them to your friends and family. I’m sure they’ll love them!

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