4Real Forums: June Artist - Prehistoric Cave Painting

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login

The Arts in the Everyday
4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday

Topic: June Artist - Prehistoric Cave Painting

Author

Message

<< Prev Topic | Next Topic >>

MaryM
Board Moderator

Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104

Posted: June 14 2007 at 4:21pm \| IP Logged

I'm a little late with this - was gone the first part of the month. I want to again thank the wonderful Amy for posting the monthly artist study the past year and a half. They were great. For anyone who is newer to the forum let me fill you in. Each month an artist is selected to study. Four or so paintings/pieces of art are selected and uploaded on the forum thread. It provides a set focus to get some art appreciation that might not happen otherwise in our busy schedules. Everyone is encouarged to add thoughts, ideas, resources, or activities to the thread for additional study options.

So this month I thought I'd go a little different route than we have in the past. Instead of focusing on a single artist I've chosen a "period" of art that is the first art depictions ever found - we don't know the artists. What child doesn't get into the idea of cave painting - a great activity to take outside to the sidewalk with chalk on this sunny summer days!

Cave painting is the earliest known form of sequential art and frequently depicted animals. The paintings are very interesting to study. The use of perspective, angle, and 3 dimensional aspects of the cave walls make the drawings very realistic considering the time.

So here are some samples of the cave paintings:

"Unicorn" from Lascaux Cave (France)

Bison from Chauvet Cave (France)

.

Handprints from Altamira Cave (Spain)

I have more to post later, but this is the start

__________________
Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

MaryM
Board Moderator

Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104

Posted: June 20 2007 at 12:54pm \| IP Logged

Art & History
Cave Paintings are found all over the world. Western Europe, primarily Southern France and Northern Spain, are rich with caves containing Stone Age wall paintings. In 1994, north of the city of Nimes, at the foot of a cliff in the Ardèche Gorges amateur speleologists discovered one of the largest and what is thought to be the world's oldest painted prehistoric cave. It holds over 300 paintings from the late Stone Age. –Visit the Caves of Chauvet website for more information and a virtual tour. The Caves of Lascaux are also some of the best known and best preserved. Very interesting interactive sites.

The book Painters of the Caves presents the story of the Chauvet Caves.

Another picture book about cave art – The Cave Painter of Lascaux. It's not great - kind of a far-fetched and silly story but it does have fun illustrations of the cave paintings and very informative author's notes in the back.

First Painter is an other picture book you may run across. Be aware it is told as a spiritual history – imagining that the paintings were made as part of their spiritual ritual. Not for younger kids.

We don't know why the painters made cave paintings. The theories include:
-Hunting "magic"
-Part of their spiritual beliefs
-Ceremonial - coming of age
-As an aid to memory and pass on stories

THE ART
Rock paintings have been found to include line drawings in charcoal and red ochre, painted images, and negative images, which are formed by painting the rock area around an object, such as a hand.

These Paleolithic artists made paint out of natural substances such as red and yellow earth, different colored minerals, and black charcoal. They would grind these into a powder and mix with water (scientists have found cave water works really well for this).
Activity: Find different natural materials that can be ground up and mixed with water to form a “paint.” A great alternative is using chalk. It grinds easily and is very colorful.

To apply the paint, the artists may have used their fingers. They may also have used a piece on animal fur, but likely used brushes made from animal hair or crushed twigs tied together.
Activity: Make your own brushes with materials that may have been used by the cave painters. Experiment with painting using these different ways to apply paint.

Art Project – Make Cave Art (idea from Artistic Pursuits-Grade K-3, Book 1)
1.     Wrinkle piece of brown paper by crunching into ball. Open and flatten. Makes a textured surface similar to a cave.
2.     Look for shapes or lines that suggest an animal. Draw and animal you know about using rust, black brown, and white chalk pastels.

3.     When finished spray with a fixative.

Family Fun has directions for a similar activity.

Amaco clay has this awesome cave painting activity at their website. These are beautiful finished products.

It is believed that the negative images (like of the hand) were made by chewing charcoal or ochre to a fine dust and spewing it in light bursts against the object and the area surrounding it. Or they may have stenciled their handprints on walls by blowing paint through a tube. Your children can recreate this effect using paint in a straw – or my preference for less mess is Blopens. My kids love these. Have them place a hand palm down on a large piece of newsprint or crumpled brown paper (as above) and blow through the blow pens around the hand to create the stencil of a hand print when the hand is removed. Additionally, some of the handprints found in the caves are straight prints so children can also experiment with placing a palm in paint and making a print on the paper. Aren’t you glad it’s summer – a great outdoor activity.

Another hand print activity (from the ED SITEment website):
The “negative” hand drawings that students may notice were made by chewing pigmented powder and lightly spewing it along the outline of the hand. This can be duplicated with flavored drink mixes and straws on unwaxed newsprint. Students may need reminding that their goals is to outline their hand, not coat it in paint! These negatives are best preserved with clear acrylic spray. See examples of negative handprints at both Chauvet Pont-d'Arc and Cosquer Cave. Ask students what kind of implement the cave people might have used to create their hand prints. What might they have used for pigment? (Possible answers: slender hollow animal bones or sticks; ground ore with iron or other minerals to create various colors.)

An interesting trail to follow is a look at the field of archaeology – the study of ancient history and people. Books like Archaeologists Dig for Clues could be a starting point.
*Discussion question with the children: We can learn things about life in the Stone Age from the paintings they left. What would people in the future learn about us from our art? (use samples of current art or media - magazine pictures, etc. )

__________________
Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

amyable
Forum All-Star

Joined: March 07 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3798

Posted: June 20 2007 at 2:59pm \| IP Logged

Thank you Mary! This is so interesting. My girls are always fascinated by cave art. :)

__________________
Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of

The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler

MaryM
Board Moderator

Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104

Posted: June 03 2011 at 1:45pm \| IP Logged

Adding The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux by Emily Arnold McCully - a lovely picture book on the subject.

__________________
Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login
If you are not already registered you must first register

[Add this topic to My Favorites]

Printable version

Forum Jump

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com