The Origin Of Dotting Art: Traditional Aboriginal Painting Technique
Dotting involves a high degree of patience, time, devotion and attention to detail. The speed, pressure and even the act of dipping and placing the dots can be a wonderfully meditative, soothing, therapeutic and relaxing experience.
Australian Aboriginal art
Dot art, also known as dot painting, is recognized all around the world, especially linked to Australian Aboriginal culture.
Aboriginals hid their Dreaming symbols in the dots of each painting. That way, only other people from their tribe could truly understand the message of the painting. Soon, the practice of Aboriginal dot painting became widespread.
Dot painting, as we know it today, started around 40 years ago in 1971. Geoffrey Bardon, an art teacher, played a big role in this. Since that time, artwork of this kind has become an iconic phenomenon of the Australian body of art. Using dots, lines, footprints and circles, the easily recognizable Aboriginal dot paintings typically represent the stories and cultures of the central and western desert.
Dots can be found in other famous artists’ work too
- Georges Seurat and Paul Signac made Pointillism in 1886, which uses tiny dots to create art.
- Damien Hirst became famous for his spot paintings.
- Roy Lichtenstein made comic-book art with dots.
- John Baldessari (1931 – 2020) took photos and put dots on people’s faces.
- Yayoi Kusama loves dots. She puts them on everything from pumpkins to rooms.
Mandala Dot art
Imagine combining dots and shapes to make something beautiful. Mandala dot art lets you do just that! It’s a calm and peaceful way to create lovely pictures. You’ll focus on making pretty patterns, and the result can be a wonderful piece of art or a special gift.
You can do mandala dot art on many things, like rocks, cups, or canvas and more. You just need some paints and simple tools. And if you want to get more serious about it, you can use stencils and other professional tools too.
My journey in dot art
Dot art can take many forms, making it a creative and satisfying way to make art.
Dotting art techinque requires three main qualities: extreme patience, sensitivity and an ease of mind.
In the process of preparation I usually work on the space and surrounding energy. Cleaning it with palo santo, lighting on a candle and picking an essential oil that speaks to me and supports the creation process at that particular moment is a must do.
I close my eyes and open my thrid eye to to get an overall vision about what is waiting to be released on the canvas.
Next step is to choose the colors that match each other and are able to evoke powerful emotions when combined together. It’s a fine game that plays a big role in passing forward the message of the creation itself.
Moving forward, structure elements are created by drawing quick strokes. These strokes are extended steadily until a first possible overall structure is generated.
After this step acrylics paint is applied to the canvas for further processing. And the first version arises. By creating this version possible inequalities can be captured and optimized in the second or also third version.
Australia and New Zealand influence
I became more interested in dotting art while living in Australia and finally took a try while traveling around New Zealand.
Dotting techinque has opened a totally different creation process in my life.
I believe that living near powerful spiritual place such as Castle Hill in New zealand and having an opportunity to see Te Miringa Te Kakara, has played out an important role in the influence of my art style.
Another wave of inspiration came through while being at a very special place in Fernside, New Zealand called The Sanctuary.
I’m impressed by each masterpiece that my soul has projected out of many dimensions to this world. Each one of them carries it’s own unique energy and can open totally mindblowing gateways to parallel universes.
To learn how to make a dot mandala painting, join JekaArt Workshops.
