- Janis Brinn
[email protected]
MSU Extension 4-H Global & Cultural Education
Craft Around the World Series Australia/Oceania: Aboriginal Dot Painting
Enjoy learning how to make simple crafts from six of the seven continents: Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America.
Purpose:
Introduce youth to some simple cultural traditional crafts from around the world. Journey around the continents, learning how to make simple crafts and having fun creating.
Objectives:
- Learn the cultural history and origins of the craft.
- Inspire global exploration.
- Develop fine motor skills in painting.
- Increase cultural awareness and creativity.
Education Standards:
- Understand the visual arts in relation to history and culture.
- Apply geometric methods to solve design problems.
Experiential Learning:
- Create a design with dots of paint.
Encourage thought and discussion with these questions:
What happened? What’s important? So what? Now what?
Audience: Grades K-12
CONTINENT: AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA
Australia/Oceania is the smallest continent. There are 14 countries within Oceania, with Australia (both a country and a continent), the largest; and Nauru, the smallest.
COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA
The country of Australia is one-third desert, part of what is known as the outback.
After starting in the United States in 1902, the 4-H program spread around the world. In 1928, 4-H Junior Farmers Clubs began in New South Wales, Australia. The West Australia 4-H Junior Farmers’ Clubs started in 1935 (National 4-H History Preservation Team, n.d.). A 1957 document 4-H Around the World : Extension Circular 0-19-2 listed the country of Australia 4-H Junior Farmers’ membership at 21,232 (University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 1957).
LESSON: ABORIGINAL DOT PAINTING
Papunya Tula Art Dot paintings began as a movement in the Aboriginal community of Papunya in central Australia during the 1970s. The simple dot style of acrylics on board and canvas represents stories of the people’s past as well as has sacred significance (National Gallery of Australia, 2018). The paintings include symbols of concentric circles, U-shapes, and lines. These symbols and the paintings themselves represent the artist’s “Dreaming” places (National Museum Australia, 2021).
TIME: 30-45 minutes or multiple days depending upon the interest to learn more
MATERIALS:
- Plastic table covers
- Acrylic paints (recommend primary colors of red, yellow, blue – plus white and black)
- Paint trays
- Cups for water
- Wipes or paper towels
- Water
- Watercolor paper, cardstock, canvas, wood, or cardboard
- Dot painting tools (paintbrushes, wooden dowels of various sizes, chopsticks, circle sponge tools, toothpicks, or others)
- Pencils
- Samples (optional)
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO LINK:
View this instructional video to guide you in creating your dot paintings:
PROCEDURE: How to make Aboriginal dot paintings
- Get ideas from dot painting story designs inspired by nature or creation. Choose any theme that motivates you.
- Find a pattern or draw your own on the surface to be painted upon.
- Practice on a piece of scrap paper, making dots dipped in paint with your chosen dot painting tools.
- Use a combination of brush strokes and various sizes of dots as done in Aboriginal dot paintings.
- After you’re satisfied practicing, enjoy creating your dot painting on your chosen surface.
Art and Science – Be creative with your design. Experiment with different color of paints, try different types of dot size tools and different color layering techniques. Ask questions and make discoveries!
Reflection Questions: What surprised you and why? When were you the most creative, and why do you think that is? What made you curious today? What can you do with what you learned today?
REFERENCES:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
The activity was developed by Michigan State University Extension Educator Janis Brinn in 2020. It was updated in 2021.
Authors
- Janis Brinn
[email protected]
For questions about accessibility and/or if you need additional accommodations for a specific document, please send an email to ANR Communications & Marketing at [email protected].
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How to Paint Dots for Dot Day & Project Roundup
There is just something about dots that make them the quintessential art project embellishment.
I don’t know if anyone loves them quite as much as Yayoi Kusama, who’s out-of-this-world artwork inspires art teachers everywhere. Kusama is one of those highly relatable artist’s for young students. Her artwork is approachable, whimsical and covered in dots!
But having kids paint dots is not always an easy task. I tried my best to do Kusama justice by coming up with different ways children could make polka dots as easily as possible…stencils, stamps, a hole punch, even clay to add a 3D element.
Here are a few techniques that I just loved…
STENCILING
I created this polka dot technique by accident. I had some tag board lying around and a big hole punch that I got from Michael’s craft store a while back. It’s a Martha Stewart Brand and is widely available in most of the stores.
I was using the tag board to punch out dots for a Kasuma project that I was doing for members of The Sparklers Club.
As I was amassing the punched out dots, I ended up with a stencil.
Instead of throwing out the hole-laden tag board, I turned it into another way students could create nicely rounded dots.
All you need is thick paint like premium liquid tempera paint or acrylic paints and a flat brush.
I used thick liquid tempera paint (Crayola) and dabbed the paint onto regular sulphite paper from Tru-Ray. (80 lbs)
Q-TIPS
This technique is pretty common in the art room but just in case you haven’t done this before, you simply must. It’s wonderfully satisfying with the repetitive dots and colorful results.
I used liquid tempera paint, regular all-purpose sulphite paper and good old Q-Tips (this brand is best as the tips are thick).
PUNCHED DOTS
Remember the dots from the first technique? This is what I do with them. Take a container of paper-punched dots, glue the paper with a glue stick and assemble over a colorful piece of paper.
And the best time to do this project is now!
MORE DOT DAY PROJECTS
International Dot Day, based on Peter Reynold’s book, The Dot, is coming up on September 15th.
If you haven’t read this book to your students yet, please consider putting it at the top of teacher to-do list right away. It’s just the BEST.
The Dot is the story of Vashti who is overwhelmed at the sight of a blank piece of paper. Her art teacher gently encourages her to explore art her way. Most art teachers consider Peter Reynold’s books essential reads for the art room as he addresses the issues children face when learning how to be an artist.
I did an entire episode of what things to do on dot day on Art Made Easy plus added a video of one of the projects, too. Check it out HERE.
For more colorful inspiration for your art room, these bold colors and comic book imagery of famous artist Roy Lichtenstein are sure to grab your students’ attention! With Lichtenstein’s birthday coming up in October, this is also a great lesson to teach the introduction of this artist.
Modern artist Yayoi Kusama is a fabulous artist for young students to learn about because her artwork is approachable and whimsical. With the Kusama collage lesson found inside The Sparklers’ Club, your students will love to create fun, dotted paper that they will turn into a playful flower collage.
Kusama Cat lesson is another great introduction for younger students who love mimicking Kusama as they create a unique, polka-dotted cat based on her series of polka-dotted animal sculptures.
Both of these lessons are found inside the Sparklers’ Club. Click HERE to join the waitlist and learn more.
If you would like more project ideas, follow us on Instagram @deepspacesparkle.com
