There
is some great Aboriginal
animal art
in Australia.
Australian Aboriginal
People
used to, and still like to, create art that represents their everyday
life and their surroundings, including landscapes, plants and animals.
Aboriginal Dot Paintings
There are roughly two styles in Australian
Aboriginal art.
Like the art in other parts of the world, and the modern-day art, the
art of Australian indigenous people was either in naturalistic or
abstract
style. The abstract
style used to be represented by desert
sand paintings, a tradition that now has developed into the modern-day
famous Aboriginal
dot painitng style.
Aboriginal animal art
by Angela Thomas via Flickr.com
Naturalistic Style
The naturalistic style is not about dots and symbols that you have to
interpret, it's about peoples', plants', and animals' figures that are
recognisable without you having to understand the symbols of the
particular tribe. Traditionally, this was the style that represented
the animal art of Australian indigenous people. Nowadays however, some
dot paintings also picture animals, typically snakes
and lizards.
Canvas Paintings and Rock Art
So today when you are looking for Aboriginal animal art in Australia,
you will find it either on a piece of canvas in dot-painting style, or
you find it on the numerous examples of Aboriginal
rock painting in many places in
Australia.
X-Ray Style
Even amongst the naturalistic animal art on the ancient rock, there are
different styles. Some of them simply picture the animal. Others use
the famous X-ray style which is very typical for northern Australia.
On the paintings in X-ray style, the animal's internal organs are
displayed in detail. There are some very old rock paintings in X-ray
style, however that style is much more common in later, 1000-2000 years
old artworks. The X-ray style is today continuously produced on canvas,
bark and paper.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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