Aboriginal Art and Paintings guide

A Comprehensive Guide to Aboriginal Art & Paintings

The art and paintings of the Australian Aboriginals had become famous all over the world for their uniqueness, variety and rich content. Moreover, the intrigue and mystery about the several hidden meanings of these paintings had generated great interest in the Aboriginal art and paintings. Lovers and connoisseurs of art and paintings had shown special attention to the Aboriginal art and paintings. Here, we are presenting a tutorial type of guide to the Aboriginal art and paintings, particularly for those persons who will be interested in taking up painting of Aboriginal art as pastime or profession.

The traditional Aboriginal paintings use ochres and ochres on bark. The ochres are predominantly used in Kimberly area, while the ochres on bark are preferred by artists from Arnhem Land. However, several modern artists undertaking Aboriginal paintings tend to utilize the modern surfaces and painting methods like acrylic paints done on canvas, ochres done on archival papers, gouache and other surfaces. Gouache is an opaque water-based paint just a like water colour paint.

Apart from the above methods and surfaces, the modern artists of Aboriginal paintings have adopted innovative techniques for application of the paints and creation of designs. For example, Emily Kame Kngwarreye had used a crushed end of one stick in some of her paintings for producing unique large smudged dots. Others have used fine brushes for producing the delicate rarrk designs and patterns belonging to the Arnhem Land paintings.

In the traditional painting, two men will work from opposite ends with lawyer-cane brushes for painting a shield that is common in northeast Queensland. Ochre is the most important material in traditional Aboriginal painting. The ochre is mined from specific sites in Australia. Ochre is a hard rock coloured heavily by iron oxide. The ochre is available in several colours ranging from dark reddish brown to pale yellow. The ochre imparts the warm and rich colour to all contemporary paintings from the Arnhem Land, Western Desert and Kimberly. The red ochre found predominance among the traditional desert people because it is a symbol of the blood of their ancestors. The traditional surfaces on which the ochre was painted are wood, rock, bark and skin. The choice of the surface will depend on the participants and the particular ceremonies.

The traditional west Kimberly Aboriginal paintings that present the gwion gwion images of the ancient folklore are done in fascinating mulberry red applied on the walls of the caves and rock overhangs. Gwion gwion is actually the name of a bird with a long beak. The Aboriginals believe that this bird was indeed a spirit man. The bird will peck at the rock faces to catch the insects hiding inside. In this process, sometimes blood will be drawn, leaving strange images on the rock surface.

The source rock of ochre is ground to a fine powder and then mixed with an appropriate fluid and water to bind the powder together. In the ancient Aboriginal tradition, saliva and blood were used as the binding fluid. Later Aboriginal artists used Spinifex gum as the binder. However, the contemporary Aboriginal artists use the standard acrylic binder as a common binding fluid, since this is stable, flexible and a tough binding material. Still, some artists like Jack Britten had mixed kangaroo blood with the ochre to get the rich dark red colour in their paintings.

Many contemporary Aboriginal artists use acrylic paint mixed with acrylic binder for Aboriginal art and paintings. The significant advantage in using acrylic paint is that it can be diluted and made thin for painting it like watercolours. It can also be used as a thick paste similar to oil paint. Moreover, acrylic paints dry very fast. Depending on the thickness of the acrylic paint, it will dry within a few minutes to a maximum of an hour. However, it should be remembered that acrylic paints would have a slightly darker colour after they dry up, unlike the watercolours, which will be lighter in colour after drying. In additional, acrylics are very tough and highly durable.

The ochre paintings were not only done on body and other surfaces like bark or other works like wooden sculptures, but also in the Aboriginal mortuary ceremonies. In Kimberly and Arnhem Land, the bones of the deceased person will be painted with ochres in the final stages of the mortuary rites. Then the bones will be wrapped in a paperbark. Subsequently, this will be placed in a log coffin, a cave or a rock shelter. This practice in the mortuary ceremony was based on the belief of the Aboriginals in afterlife. The oldest such mortuary practice was found at Lake Mungo in the western New South Wales area. The female cremation burial found in this important archaeological site in Australia was estimated to be about 26,000 years old. Another male burial evidence was found nearby but that was estimated to be a few thousand years lesser old. The bones of the man had been covered by red ochre and it had stained the burial pit in pink colour.

Application of Pigments

In the contemporary Aboriginal paintings and artworks, the traditional and modern materials and techniques are used extensively. In traditional paintings, apart from ochre, coloured clay, fine white, charcoal, mixtures of blood, fat, other organic materials and feathers were in greater use. In paintings, the most common materials were fine white clay and charcoal, in addition to ochre. In general, the materials were applied in three ways.

• A fine spray was blown from the mouth for producing silhouettes or stencils.
• A fine stick, hairbrush or crushed end of a stick was used to brush the pigment.
• In certain other paintings, particularly in body paintings, fingers and hands were freely used.

The traditional artists of Arnhem Land painted on wood and bark with different types of brushes for creating varied effects. This was done with painstaking care and love. Normally, the surface of the bark sheet will be initially covered with a single layer with red ochre or some other colour. The binding fluid in this layer had been turtle egg yolks or orchid sap in the earlier times. However, the contemporary Aboriginal artists use polyvinyl acetate glue as the binding fluid. The lines and forms in the designs and patters are generally outlined in white, yellow or black ochre. A brush made from a stick having fine grass or fibres attached to it is used for painting the outlines.

This is followed by the application of a characteristic pattern of crosshatch for creating the shimmering effect. This pattern is predominant in the artworks of Arnhem Land. A special fine brush made from a short stick is used for this purpose. The stick is tied with straight human hair at its end for obtaining the delicately painted fine parallel lines. The rarrk patterns are created in this method. Finally, white ochre is painted with the help of the brush for outlining the crosshatch areas and figures. During body painting of the skin for ceremonies, hands and fingers were freely used for applying the pigments.

Etching

Several contemporary Aboriginal artists use etching for painting their designs. They use a mixture of sugar and ink to obtain the design directly on a zinc plate. When the mix in the plate is dried up, a coating of bitumen paint is applied on the entire surface of the zinc plate. After that, the mixture of sugar and ink is dissolved by immersing the plate in a tray containing hot water. The drawing or the design of the artist is exposed now. It is etched in an acid tray. If necessary, further tones are added in consultation with the artists. It is possible to incise marks into the metal by using sharp needles or special etching tools. When the entire process is over, the plate is inked and printing is done on paper to obtain the image.

Collagraph

This method is sparingly practised now by contemporary Aboriginal artists, though it was introduced in 1999 among the Yolngu painters. In this method, cardboard or Masonite is used as the base. The designs, patterns and textures are painted on the surface of the block. Sometimes, collaged items are built up on the surface. After applying one or two layers of shellac on the surface, it can be inked and used like an etching plate. This process is quite simple but somehow, it had not become very popular till now.

Screen Printing

Many contemporary Aboriginal artists have resorted to silkscreen printing. The paint is directly applied to acetate sheets and this helps the artists to use more colours than the other methods. Each acetate sheet is done in one colour and they are overlaid in the proper order to bring out the full painting. When the painting is finished, the acetate sheets are separated with great care. Then, each sheet is exposed in the sun onto a nylon-meshed screen that had been coated with a light-sensitive emulsion in a dark room. The emulsion is hardened on the screen due to the exposure to light. However, the painted areas will not become hard, since the light will not pass through them. Thus, a stencil is created on the screen. When the ink is pulled across the screen, it seeps through the open areas of the stencil onto the paper sheets kept below the screen. Each colour is done with a separate screen. The paintings obtained in this manner have rich colour and are very bright. Several paintings can be made within a short time in this screen printing method.

Relief Painting

The Aboriginal artists, who are traditionally accustomed to carving, use woodcut and lino as their medium of art. The Yolngu and Tiwi people are example of this artistic expression. They carve two-dimensional designs on a flat surface. They draw the patterns and designs on the wood or lino. Then the areas that should not carry ink are carved away. A roller is used to ink the high areas. A paper sheet is placed on top of the block and both are run through an etching press to obtain the prints. Separate cuts are used for the application of each colour.

Lithography

Many artists from the Arnhem Land had used lithography also extensively. The paintings are done on fine limestone slabs, cave walls and rock surfaces. The paintings are drawn on the stone with the help of a crayon or a greasy ink. The stone is then treated chemically to settle the drawing. The background areas are made water receptive in this method. Then the stone is made wet with a sponge. The negative areas in the stone will repel the ink when they become wet. When the stone is rolled over with a big roller, the details of the greasy drawings will attract the ink. The plate is covered with a paper sheet and both are run through a press with the application of a light pressure. The drawing is transferred to the paper sheet. However, in this method also, separate drawings should be prepared for each colour, if a multicolour drawing is required.

Aboriginal Art & Painting Images

The common Aboriginal images found in rock art are animal tracks, boomerangs, tools like stone axes, spear throwers and human hands or arms. All the traditional images found so far are stencil images. The Carnarvon Range situated in central Queensland is quite famous for such stencil images, though they are found across the entire Australia.

Nowadays, many Aboriginal artists are bringing out Limited Edition Prints of their paintings to create a special niche for their native art. Normally, in Australia, the limited edition prints do not exceed hundred. When this limited edition print had been done, the plates or the screens are destroyed or the image is wiped off the lithographic stone to prevent further printing of the same painting. The native art of the Aboriginal arts and paintings are a strong expression of the culture of the Australian Aboriginals and are in great demand in the art galleries, shows and exhibitions all over the world.