Students in Year 1/2 were learning about Aboriginal traditions and their use of leaves as medicine from ‘nature’s pharmacy’. We watched a YouTube video explaining various leaves from the bush and their use to treat different ailments. The lesson project is from Japingka Aboriginal Art website which has some wonderful art lesson plans. Check it out!
The lesson looks at the Bush Medicine art of Rosemary Petyarre, and we also looked at an artwork I own, also titled Bush Medicine Leaves by Rosemary Pitjara. We compared the artworks and discussed the movement in each.
We used liquid watercolours to paint a piece of paper in stripes or bands blending the edges, and also a spray of water to further add interest.
The black background paper has texture added with paint sponged, scraped and dabbed to create a sense of the bush or forest floor.
Students traced a gum leaf onto card, cut it out and used as a template to trace as many shapes as they could on the back of their watercolour paper. They then arranged these onto the background paper in a way that shows ‘movement’.
Students then used Zart white Perma Pens as a quicker method of dotting around the leaf shapes to highlight them.
