Term 2 - 'Aboriginal Art'
Aboriginal Art
This term, we will be learning about different artists from other cultures and using our inner artist to create a piece of art work inspired by their styles. We will be looking at pieces of aboriginal art from Australia and exploring them, discussing what we can see and identifying patterns, colours and symbols that have been used within the pieces. We will explore the symbology and practice using these within our own sketchbooks. We will also learn about primary colours, and how they can be used to create secondary colours. Once we have practiced all of these skills, we will experiment with different tools to create patterns and then we will combine them to create our own pieces. Once we have completed our art, we will look at where aboriginal art comes from and compare the UK and Australia.
Please see the knowledge organiser and progress grid below for more information:
We started our topic by looking at existing aboriginal art and discussing what we noticed about the pictures. We looked at the colours that the artists had used, as well as some of the symbols that we could see in the picture. We noticed that the artists liked to use ‘earthy’ colours, and that they used circles and swirls within the images.
Next, we learnt about primary colours. We know that primary colours are colours that cannot be made, but can be mixed together to create new colours (secondary colours). We had a lot of fun mixing the primary colours to make secondary colours.
Once we had practised making the different colours, we then looked at the techniques that are used in aboriginal paintings. We then used these in our own version. We learnt about the different symbols, their meanings and how they are used to tell a story. We then applied these to our own work and developed our own interpretations of the artwork.
We were very excited for our trip to Maidstone Museum, where we went to the Bentlif art gallery. Although they did not have any Aboriginal art, we were able to look at art works that were in the gallery. We discussed the use of colour and how that affected the mood of the painting. Then, we found a painting that we liked and drew our favourite part of that image. After looking at the art work, we explored the rest of the museum. We had a lot of fun, and were very tired when we got back to school!
