AAC Rainbow Bird – Southern Tablelands Arts

Afternoon Art Club at Home with Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

Rainbow Bird with Sally O’Neill

Join Sally as she helps you create a rainbow bird using etching, a similar technique to indigenous artist Carlene Thompson’s “sgraffito’ technique.

Carlene Thompsons works were featured in the Earthbound Exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

You will need:

Drawing

Using Oil pastels or crayons, create a colourful abstract drawing on your cardstock.
Don’t worry too much about what you are drawing – at the end of the day all you will see is colour popping through layers of paint.
Ensure you cover the whole piece of paper leaving no gaps.

Painting

Mix two parts black acrylic with one part dishwashing liquid. This mixture will helpd the paint sit on the surface of the oily drawing.
Apply the paint thickly so you can see the drawing underneath. You may need to apply 2-3 coats.

Etching

Use something scratchy like a pencil or wooden skewer to scratch through the layers of paint to reveal the colours underneath.
You may want some paper underneath to catch the loose bits.

Want more?

use a large piece of carstockor prep lots of small piece put together to make a large scale etching.
Try sgraffito like carlene Thompson by carving through glazed leatherhard clay.
Try other carving techniques like lino cut.

We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the traditional custodians of the lands where we create, live & work.