Research

Michelle and Hyehee went to the Library to find some information on artists who paint the cultural and natural environment in Broken Hill
 * Wednesday 21st March 2012**

Consider the landscape, natural flora and fauna, animals, red soil and the vast land.
 * Focus question: how has the cultural and natural environment been depicted in art?**

Yes, we found an artist called Shane Gehlert who shows different cultures in his artworks as well as the landscape of Broken Hill.
 * Is there any culture depicted in art?**

Most of the artists in Broken Hill incorporate the natural landscape of Broken Hill and the colours of the sky at dawn or sunset. This relates to our focus question because this is how the natural environment is depicted in art.
 * What do most of the artists in Broken Hill paint today?**

__Peter Andrew Anderson__ He was born in broken hill and he spent his early years exploring the vast land Peter got inspired by the colors of dawn and sunset and thought they held a special magic. Since the mining industry has been declining the main focus was art and tourism, which helped young artists to do start painting at a young age. He was influenced by other artists and he paints the landscape of Broken Hill as well with the natural environment.
 * Research some artists and their artworks**

__Kevin White__ He lives in Broken Hill and spent 26 years working in the mines. Kevin’s visions and wishes of his artworks are to hold the history of broken hill together and to foster the understanding of how difficult life was in the mines. In his artworks he uses the ore from the mines. Some of the minerals he uses can not be found today so his artworks are vey rare and unique.

__Howard William Steer__ Howard comes from a working class family who lives in Broken Hill. Most of his artworks show the hardships of broken hill in the past. His paintings relate to the history but it is already sold to places outside of broken hill. He uses a medium of oil in his artworks and some of them have a sense of humour.

__Shane Gehlert__ Shane enjoys the isolation of the town and the ruggedness of the surrounding country and the untouched scenery. He taught himself to paint with an acrylic medium. His artworks depict simplicity and are a moment in time, rather than a historical event. In his artworks, there is cheerful and relaxing feeling.

- art of broken hill - blue sky blue bush and silver
 * Resources used to find the information**

People paint the landscape because the artists believe that it is not just a dirty Outback mining town but a red desert and a town possessing a wonderful mining Heritage. Art is everywhere in broken hill. Artists view that it is a serious profession; a spiritual expression of their city and lifestyle. Broken hill looks highly to art as his is how many artists express their feelings.
 * What is art to people in Broken Hill?**

The interview from Bushy White (Kevin) explains the history of how mining started- the first discovery of iron ore created mining. He was influenced/inspired by his artworks because of working in the mines for many years. He used to extract the minerals from underground (it cannot be done so nowadays) and he crushed the stones in a dolly pot, sieved and then glued onto the artwork. He does his artworks in remembrance of mining and this relates to our overarching question as mining is incorporated into art. The file of the interview is too big to upload, so we will keep trying for it to be uploaded.
 * Research on how mining has influenced art in Broken Hill**

We have retouched our focus question as some teachers thought it was too broad. We had to choose either the cultural or natural aspect as doing both would be too difficult. We have decided to focus only on the cultural aspect so our new focus question is: How do artists depict Broken Hill through the cultural environment?
 * March 23rd 2012**

Keertana and Claudia interviewed Cathy at the Regional art gallery and she gave us some insights on how the mining culture has influenced art in Broken Hill. Some of the artists e.g. Pro Hart have experienced the life of being a miner before and therefore wanted to document their memories through art. Mining was a major influence in the town as it was the central activity of the locals as Broken Hill acted a bit like the 'central hub'. Isolation would have played a part in influencing the artist's perspective of Broken Hill as well as in those days the technology was very limited, unlike the digital age presently. Due to this, the people influenced each other as did the landscape. Due to the time and condition, there were a lot of self-taught artists.

The painting of Arabs who migrated is shown through an artwork, which has camels. Camels were considered to be security animals in Bundra North 1925 and vehicles in Cockburn during 1915. This was emphasised in the artwork which appeared in the migrant museum, which we had visited. The painting will be uploaded. We will aim to research more into migrants who have influenced art in Broken Hill. We also saw various minerals in the museum and shows how they are becoming rare, so Kevin's artwork is unique and has strong influence of the mines.
 * How have migrants influenced art?**

Art also comes in the form of photography and one of the photographers based in Broken Hill is Boris Hlavica, who was a migrant from Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic). He was granted refugee status from Czechoslovakia under Soviet occupation. He arrived in Australia in 1968 and has been capturing the beauty of Broken Hill ever since, even though he permanently settled into the city in 2003. In the front cover of the book, //Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story//, the photo captures the cultural significance of Broken Hill. The building materials that could be transported most easily were corrugated iron and timber. The migrants built their houses out of these materials (known as 'tinnies') and some still remain there today, where they stand as a symbol of those who migrated and set up their lives in Broken Hill.

Michelle and Hyehee went to the Bush N Beyond and the Howard William Steer Gallery. We interviewed Howard William Steer asking him questions about his artworks. He told us that his artworks tell a story and that they are comical. He uses the same background colours in almost most his paintings and also his artworks are some what humorous. He uses the flying doctor in his artworks as well but not a plane but a person with wings. Most of his artworks include people to show the community and also the outback.

After our research day we met up and have decided on the four artists we will focus on. We have decided to focus on Howard William Steer, Kevin White, Geoff Demain and Boris Hlavica.

After many activities in the morning we had an art workshop from a teacher and artist who works at Broken Hill High School. He showed and let us try how to draw a finger and then we got to use charcoal to draw a pot. This got us thinking about our project and we decided to use some charcoal in the kevin white artwork as it focuses on mining. We have decided that by using charcoal we can emphasise how dark it must have been down in the mines. He then showed us how to do a landscape painting. He showed us how to blend colours and draw a broken hill tree and tracks. It helped us a lot and we think that we are going to use some of his techniques in our artwork.
 * 25th March 2012**