Wednesday 5 February 2014

australia

a land i've never visited: australia.  i think it is a wonderful place, i know it is beautiful.  i know it is in danger with extreme drought and fires occurring with increasing frequency. there is a rich aboriginal culture there which i would love to learn more about.  ultimately for my tag i decided to attempt a version of aboriginal dot painting.


i cut a large tag base from sturdy cardboard and then painted it with acrylics.  i don't have the highest quality of paints or brushes but i did my best.  i did the dots with a white poster paint pen.  i wanted to include a snake which is often a subject of aboriginal art but i was also attracted to the idea of a lizard and found this salamander amongst images i'd downloaded for free from dover publications.  i printed the salamander on olive kraft paper and outlined a bit with black pen and enhanced the spots and eye with a silver sharpie.  the sun stamp is from uptown rubber stamps.  i stamped it, colored it with metallic gold and red-gold pro markers and cut it out to add to the tag.  the tag is a little blurry on the right top edge which is due to the scan and not to the quality of the original.  i enjoyed experimenting with this.  but hopefully i'll be forgiven my weak effort at such a beautiful art form.  

love to all.

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful tag Michele, love your painted background, it really sings! Valerie

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  2. You are right Michelle there is a rich and diverse art culture here.Celebrating the connection to the land is very important in Australia. I hope you do get to visit as the diversity of landscape,people and culture is awesome. Thank you for researching and capturing an aspect with your tag.

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  3. I really like the deep rich colours you've achieved here. Bravo for attempting the artwork, I wasn't brave enough to even try :o))

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  4. Stunning tag. Everything stands out so well with the wonderful colours and white dots

    Chrissie x

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  5. i love the colours you have chosen - great tag! Carolyn xx

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  6. Love the whole feel of it, the salamander is wonderful and loving the dots too! ~Diane

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  7. I think you captured the spirit of the dreamtime with your tribute to Aboriginal art. I think sometimes we in Australia tend to undervalue the richness of our culture before white settlement.

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  8. I'm fascinated by the Aborigine's art too. It's so intricate and mystical. Blessings!

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  9. Beautiful illustration of aboriginal dot pinting. I chose that subject too. Very interesting!
    Jane x

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