I found a very informative article called, “Aboriginal Dot Paintings and their Origins,†on the kate owen gallery site about contemporary aboriginal art. I highly recommend checking out this site if you want to include background information with your art project.
The article tells about differing Dot painting styles ranging from exceedingly neat work to overlapping, unstructured works. From dots placed so close together they appear to be lines and dotted areas so dense as to create a flat colored area.
If you click on “view paintings by artist†on that page, you’ll go to a listing of Australian Aboriginal Artists. One, that I found interesting, is Trevor Turbo Brown who has paintings that sell for as much as $5500. One of Queenie McKenzie’s paintings is priced at $24,500.
Since I doubt that many of us will be ordering one of those paintings, I thought the next best thing was for us to paint glass jars using the Dot technique.
Supplies:
• Glass jar
• Matte spray sealer
• Craft paints
• Paper plate
• Q-tips
• Optional: Gloss spray sealer
Directions:
 
 
 
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1. Spray a fine coat of matte spray sealer over a washed and dried glass jar. This makes the craft paint adhere better to the glass.
2. Choose four or five colors of craft paint for your project. Have enough Q-tips so each paint color has a separate Q-tip.
3. Plan a pattern, or free-hand a pattern, for the jar.
4. Pour a small amount of paint on a paper plate, dip an end of a Q-tip in the paint and dot the color onto the jar. Change colors as you make a pattern on the jar.
Optional:
1. If you choose to cure the painted jar with heat: Place jar on a pan in a cold oven. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Turn off the oven and let the jar cool in the oven. Remove when cooled.
2. Another choice is to spray the jar with gloss spray sealer.
6th Grade Projects Gallery
