Week 5 – Using brushes to create marks

‘It is customary for Yolŋu artists who paint Country and the stories it holds to use materials collected from Country…’

Last week students explored their immediate surroundings and collected natural materials to make their brushes. Their aim was to further explore the idea of mark making and pattern and experiment with a range of materials to create their own unique patterns and marks. Over the weeks they aimed to develop their own individual visual language.

This week students explored mark making and patterning using their natural material brushes. Students collected materials from the landscape around the school made a variety of brushes from these materials. They then explored their mark making possibilities, using blue ink on white paper. Students were fascinated by the work of Dhambit Munuŋgurr and her use of blue paint. The use of blue ink is directly inspired by her work, and her use of unconventional colours.

“In 2005 Dhambit was injured in a car accident. While it is customary for Yolŋu artists to paint with materials collected from country, and while Yolŋu people are strong in their sense of protocol, they are also profoundly compassionate. And so, following her accident, Dhambit was given special consideration to paint with store-bought paint, which did not require hand grinding. Until 2019, Dhambit used these acrylic paints to re-create ones of oche (mainy orange, red and yellow), moving into bold blue and other colours only recently. Despite being the dominant colour in the natural world that is visible to the human eye (the sky and the sea), blue is relatively rare in living nature, and even rarer as a naturally occurring pigment.’ P9, Bark Ladies: Eleven Artists from Yirrkala, Myles Russell-Cook, NGV publication 2022

Students from year prep to year 5/6 reflected on how they responded to the use of natural brushes and the mark making and line work that the movement of their brushes created at random.

•Prep:

•“I liked making swirls and the traction of the leaves on the paper.” Louis

•When we used our brushes, we were drawing what we think.” Daisy

•“I did a splattery picture and making pattern helps you feel happy.” Miles

5/6:

•“I felt when I was working, a speed to the action of mark-making. It was quicker than normal painting. Most of the patterns are already inside the brush.” Tom

•“It was interesting to see the end result and the differences between each brush. If you angle the brush in different ways it changes the pattern. Isabella

Here are some of the exploratory marks made by the students…

Week 6
Developing our own unique visual language

This week students chose one of the mark and line spontaneous ink drawings made from their natural material brushes. They examined this chosen drawing and used their imagination to find hidden images and landscapes. Using a black pen, students added to, embellished and drew into these works. They created maps of imaginary creatures, maps of a place, maps of stories, maps of imaginary worlds…

Using a black pen students developed the lines already present on the page. They embellished their work with patterning and mark making. They will further embellish these maps next week using coloured paint markers.

Next week, students will add colour to their work, giving it a new vitality and life in their quest to develop their own unique mark making and drawing style. Below is a teaser of what is to come…