Ancient Aboriginal Cave Painting

Probably our most famous Aboriginal artist would be Albert Namatjira who is best known for his water-colour landscapes of the Macdonnell Ranges and the nearby regions of Central Australia. His painting style was more of a conventional approach to art unlike some of the Aboriginal art we see but his paintings do capture something special in them.

Aboriginal art has existed for many thousands of years. Some of the rock carvings and aboriginal paintings are 30,000 years old. These painting and carvings narrate the stories of the painter or sculptor.

The colours used in ancient Aboriginal art were natural shades of earth colours such as red, brown and yellow. The other colours used were white made from pipe clay and charcoal made by burning wood.

One of the traditional visual art forms of the Aboriginals is known as “Dot painting”. In dot painting, minute dots are used to create symbols and patterns on canvas. Traditional dot painters still use natural pigments derived from plants and seeds but some contemporary artists now use acrylic paints on canvas instead of natural earth colours.

At Australian Native T-Shirts we have quite a selection of Aboriginal art on t-shirts, ladies clothing, prints and wallhangings. Click here to check it out!

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