Recently I had an opportunity to attend the opening of the Reconciliation Week Aboriginal Art Exhibition organised by my local council, Tea Tree Gully & a demonstration of Aboriginal painting done by Raylene & her daughter Samantha who are both involved with Marra Dreaming at Salisbury.
Raelene's painting was done as a collaborative piece so that those attending could have a turn to paint, wow what an experience!
Toward the end of the week, a workshop was held for anyone who wished to attend. There was a good turnout & everyone enjoyed doing their rendition of Aboriginal artwork. Most were non painters & they were thrilled with their accomplishments & everyone was impressed with each other's paintings.
I enjoyed it immensely & my niece Belinda, who was staying with me at the time, did basket weaving & took home a beaut small basket for her Mum, along with three other starter baskets to finish off for her friends, kindly given to her by Judy one of the Aboriginal ladies who showed them how to weave.
My painting is not yet totally finished. I have been very busy so look forward to finishing it soon but i wanted to put it up on my teacher/artist pages on the Chroma site as part of the blog about my ongoing involvement painting with Aboriginal people. See more about that on my class & workshop page.
We all did our own "thing" at the workshop & my painting may not be totally traditional & may show glimpses of my past painting history. There are though, some significant parts to it. The groups of white & dark coloured shapes grouped around a central circle represent men, both aboriginal & white meeting together sitting in a circle. I also didn't clean my brush so that the mixes were not just pure colour, it was mixed colour which I felt represented how cultures have "melded" together throughout history. It was my statement about working together to build relationships - a thing that should happen between us all, not just different cultures. I learned the significance of this from Freda an aboriginal lady whom I painted with at a workshop recently. Freda taught me which shapes were male & which shapes were female.
I look forward to my next steps of painting with aboriginal folk @ Nepabunna & with the ladies @ Marra Dreaming :-)