Art lesson by way of Australia

We spent some time yesterday looking at Australian Aboriginal art and listening to didgeridoo music.  Much Aboriginal art is made by dots forming animals or swirling patterns.  It is very cool looking, so we decided to try our hand at it.

I got out the acrylic paint (a rare treat), some mat boards (cut to reasonable sizes), and cotton swabs (for making the dots).  Some painters chose to sketch their design first and then paint, and others dove right in.  Even if you are not studying Australia, I highly recommend this activity.  I gave the instructions that the entire board needed to be filled in, and everyone was so taken with the method that it kept them busy for at least an hour... some significantly more.  We used the back of the mat board and it turned out to be the perfect surface... mainly because it was stiff enough to hold all the paint that was applied.

Here are a couple of the painters at work:

And the results.  These are TM's at the top, D.'s in the middle, and K.'s on the bottom.  The boys were going for the method and feeling of the project rather than trying to copy Aboriginal art exactly... as you can see.  This was also a huge success for K.  It was the first project he has done where he has been able to follow the directions (more or less), and also worked at it for more than a couple of minutes.  I rather like his painting.

Here is P.'s:

And A.'s (M. wants to take it to school if A. decides she doesn't want it):

I did one, too.  I find it always helps the inspire the children to see me doing a project as well.  Don't look at it too long, or it may make you dizzy.  B. suggested it looked like monkey tails sticking out of the sand.