Aboriginal Bark Painting

Grade Level: 6Subject: Social StudiesFine Art: Visual Art

• Students will describe (in writing) the characteristics that historians use to organize people into cultures.

• Students will explore Aboriginal culture and visual art and compare/contrast with Native American visual art (namely, Plains Indians’ cave paintings/pictographs) in discussion groups of about four students.

• Students will create Aboriginal bark paintings, using the contour line drawing technique and stylistic elements, copying the Aboriginal style and drawing animals as if they had X-ray vision.

OBJECTIVES:

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How does art reflect how groups of people communicate feelings and ideas?

Native American CultureGreat Plains Indians Aboriginal Culture

• Composed of various tribes, nations, and languages: Blackfoot, Lakota, Wichita,

Pawnee• Spiritualism: Sweatlodge ceremonies-Sun Dance, Ghost Dance• Men were hunters,

warriors, protectors• Women tended to • children, homes, farms -Cave paintings- tell where food is/ story telling

-inhabited their land before anyone else and both have been pushed back further and further by others who invaded their land and took it over-nomadic people, traveling long distances for food-struck by European disease

-Composed of various tribes usually based on languages and geography. (Aku Ramul, Kambre, Panara)-Spirituality: the land/objects share the same soul as the people: Dreamtime-folk style: didgeridoo -Astronomy: night sky tells stories/laws- Storylines-Bark painting

Culture

• Describe the characteristics that historians use to organize people into cultures • Australian Aborigines• Plains Indians

• Belief systems (Religion/Spirituality)• Location • Customs/Traditions• Art

Rock art Bark Painting• http://video.nationalgeographic.com

/video/kids/people-places-kids/australia-rockart-kids/

Aboriginal Art: Bark Paintings• Illustrate stories told to young people about their spiritual

beliefs/customs. Some paintings illustrate animals as if they had “X-ray vision” expressing how their ancestors were responsible for creation (many show how animal and human anatomy as well as spirit are similar) • Art form involving painting the interior of a strip of tree bark• They heated the bark over hot coals of a fire until they were

able to pound it flat • They used paints made from ground rock (ochre), charcoal,

and chalk on the flat bark with pointed sticks.• Originally, bark paintings were produced for

instructional/ceremonial purposes• Some tell stories of Dreamtime- path of the creator spirit

Bark Paintings• Historic bark paintings collected by Baldwin Spencer in 1912

Bark Paintings• X-ray art shows the outside as well as some of the inside parts,

the spine and organs of an animal or person• Kolobar Kangaroo, Yuwun Y. Marruwarr. 1971. Bark Painting,

27‖ x 15‖

Bark Paintings:“X-ray Vision”

Bark Paintings:“X-ray Vision”

Bark Paintings• Several components:• Begin with border of image- Contour line drawing• Sketch of the outermost edges of image (used in X-ray images of

animals)• Use dividing lines and feature blocks to help identify scenes in a story• Figurative designs- resemble real or mythological creatures• Geometric designs are representational symbols • For example, a circle might represent a water hole, a mat, a

campfire, a nut, a hole left by maggots, etc., depending on context• Techniques: Fill the space with designs, shapes, lines• crosshatching (drawing two layers of hatching at right-angles in order

create a mesh-like pattern , dots• Emphasis should be on lines, repeating patterns, borders• Today, Aboriginal artists honor traditional DreamTime stories through

their art, using old designs (as listed above) and techniques with modern materials such as acrylic paint and canvas

Plains Indians’ Cave Paintings• Pictographs: drawings or paintings made on rocks/

form of communication using symbols because no written language • Illustrations suggest ongoing habitation, way of

communication about hunting/food, and religious/ceremonial purposes (sacrifices) • Many depict large wild animals: bison, horses, deer• Pigments used include red and

yellow ochre, manganese oxide and charcoal• Scenes were often of hunting scenes; thought to

bring ample prey for the next hunting season

Plains Indians

• Indigenous and nomadic people that lived in the plains/hills of the Great Plains of North America (modern western U.S. and parts of Canada)• The Plains people did not have a written

language of words and letters. They used pictures and symbols. • The Plains people wrote on rocks, cave walls,

and on scraps of buffalo hide. These pictographs told stories of their battles, heroes, and daily life. They also acted as warnings.

Pictographs

Plains Indians’ Pictographs

What Does Art Communicate?

Pictographs/cave paintings• Told stories of their battles, heroes, and daily life.

They also communicated as warnings (of weather, predators, harvest growth)

Aboriginal bark paintings• Communicate Dreamtime stories or their spiritual

beliefs about how humans, animals, and plants have traveling spirits/souls• Pass on ceremonial traditions

• Reflect and instruct clan members and ancestors of their beliefs and customs

Aboriginal Bark Paintings

• Contour line drawing: technique when drawing the outermost edges of an image to make the item you are drawing look realistic • Stylistic Elements: Contour Lines in X-ray bark paintings of

animals to represent the outside as well as some of the inside parts, the spine and organs of an animal • Aboriginal artists drew in X-ray vision style on the inside

of the contour drawing of their animals. • They drew shapes and designs (cross-hatching,

figurative blocks/lines, and geometric figures) to represent what they imagine the inside of the animals would look like

Teacher’s Example

How To: 1. Begin with a brown piece of construction paper (12” x 18”)2. Choose an animal to draw• Teacher will have visual examples of some animals to refer to

when drawing the contour (outside edges of the animal)3. Draw the contour edges of the animal in pencil4. Draw realistic “insides”/“X-ray” of the animal (spine, organs,

bones etc.) using elements & features discussed, in pencil• Copy the aboriginal style using cross-hatching, blocks, and shapes

5. Trace the pencil outlines in black sharpie6. Color “X-ray” Bark Painting in with crayons7. Tear the outside edges of brown construction paper to look

like bark8. Mount “bark” on piece of black, red, yellow, or white

construction paper (12” x 18”) with glue stick

Elements & Features