Blogs

BLOGGING: Tuesday 20th March 2012 We went to the mining museum in Broken Hill and met a person named Bushy White who mined for 26 years in Broken Hill. He gave us an explanation of how people mined in the olden days and what has changed now. He is also an artist who uses the ore from the mines, which are minerals to create artworks to show what happens underground in the mines. We all thought that his artworks were very interesting, as we had never seen any artworks with minerals. He explained to us that nowadays people can’t access some of the minerals he has, as they are no longer available. After all his explanation of the mines Keertana and Claudia interviewed him asking about his artworks. They asked him about the history of the mines and the techniques he uses to incorporate the minerals into his artworks. He crushes the minerals in a dolly pot and glues it onto the artwork. This day has helped us a lot with our research of art as we have started to put together our focus question as a group. Tomorrow we have planned that Hyehee and Michelle will go to the library to find out information about artists and to see how the cultural and natural environment has been depicted in art. Keertana and Claudia will go to the railway museum and try to find any artworks that have railways incorporated in it.



BLOGGING: Wednesday 21st March 2012 – Michelle’s Birthday Today we split up as a group and went our separate ways to find out information more quickly and efficiently. Michelle and Hyehee went to the Library and we discovered many artists who depict the cultural and natural environment in Broken Hill. We narrowed the artists down to 4 as we only had 4 artists. 2 of the artists depicted the cultural environment and the other 2 depicted the natural environment of Broken Hill. The names of the artists are Peter Andrew Anderson, Kevin White, Howard William Steer and Shane Gehlert. We picked these 4 artists as we thought their artworks were the most interesting and depicted the cultural and natural environment the best. We also answered many of the questions we wrote to find out at the library. All the answers and questions and information about the artists are in a separate document. While Hyehee and Michelle were at the library Keertana and Claudia were at the Railway Museum. They found a painting, which had Arabs holding camels. They thought his artwork was very interesting since the Arabs brought about camels, which were used as security animals during the early years. This day was very successful as all of us gained a lot of information from the day.



BLOGGING: Thursday 22nd March 2012 – Tori’s Birthday Today we went to Menindee and saw the lake and the trees. The landscape was spectacular and we considered painting it on our artwork for our natural paintings. When we arrived back at the gallery we had some time to reflect and to work on our projects. We basically cleared everything up and planned where we were going tomorrow. Tomorrow Claudia and Keertana are going to the Regional art gallery to find out more information about some of the artists. Michelle and Hyehee will be going to the Howard Steer Art Gallery and the Bush and beyond gallery. We plan to interview artists or people working in art. Take pictures, write notes and look at the cultural and natural aspects depicted in the art.



BLOGGING: Friday 23rd March 2012 Today we had time to retouch our focus question as the teachers thought it was too broad. We had to choose whether to focus on either the cultural aspect or the natural aspect. We chose to focus on the cultural aspects depicted in art in Broken Hill. So our new focus question is: How do artists depict Broken Hill through the cultural environment. Michelle and Hyehee then went to the Bush n beyond art gallery. All the paintings were of the natural environment here in Broken Hill so it didn’t really help us with our research however we thought all the paintings were interesting. After the Bush n beyond gallery we headed to the William Steer art gallery. We interviewed him and asked him what inspires him to paint, where he gets his ideas from and the humour and what are his main colours he uses in his artworks. He told us that nothing really inspires him to paint because he just gets a feeling that is not explainable. He is a 4th generation painter in his family, so he has grown up in an art culture. He also told us that his main colours for the background are from bottom to top. Red, orange, yellow, white, light blue and dark blue. In pretty much all his paintings he has the flying doctor with wings, trees and people. His paintings are humorous as there are often words written within them. William also told us that his artworks tell a story and usually the words help the colours come to life. I think his artworks are really interesting, as I have never seen any artworks that are humorous. While we were at the galleries Keertana and Claudia went to visit the Regional Art Gallery. We saw various works of Badger Bates, a renowned Aboriginal artist of Broken Hill. He does paintings, linocut print and shaping of trees into animals or symbols of significance. We also ventured into looking at artists who have artworks about mining and the daily life in the outback. After this Hyehee, Claudia and Keertana went to the gallery of Geoff Demain, where he had significant influences of Greece, Aboriginals and other renowned people. He also made sculptures, carving of wood and paintings of all these aspects. When everyone arrived back to Mulberry Vale, we discussed who the 4 artists we were going to focus on were. We have decided to use Howard William Steer, Kevin White, Geoff Demain and Boris Hlavica. Unfortunately we couldn’t go to Boris Hlavica’s gallery but on Tuesday Keertana and Claudia saw one of his artworks in the Railway museum.



BLOGGING: Saturday 24th March 2012 Today we travelled to Silverton, which surprisingly was very close. We were split into 3 groups and we all rotated so we would all be able to do everything. Firstly for me, I went to a place of what used to be the Silverton Public School. We experienced what it would be like to go to school in the olden days. We got to use ink and a special pen and I thought it was surprisingly very difficult to write. While we were there we also saw donkeys. Next, I went to the camel ridings. Personally, I don’t really like animals so I didn’t particularly want to go on them but most of the people did. We could all hear the camels groaning and the screams of the people who went on the camels. I thought it was really interesting as in one of the paintings that Keertana and Claudia found in the railway museums, there were camels. I took quite a lot of pictures as I thought that we could incorporate some animals into our paintings. Like the painting the people were holding camels so I thought we could paint something like that. Next, I visited the Jail Museum. We saw many interesting things and even a cell. We then visited the daydream mines. This was the highlight of my day as we got to go under the mine. This related to our focus question as we were going to do an artwork like Kevin White, whose artworks focus on the hardships of mining. I thought that just climbing down the mines was very difficult but to experience to have to carry and move heavy minerals, I cannot imagine how much pain that would have been. I think that we gained a lot of insight of what mining used to be like and how we can incorporate that into our artwork. I thought that we could maybe use some small rocks and glue it onto our artworks to represent the minerals in the painting. After the mines we went to the sculptures. After climbing a very high hill we could see the whole of Silverton and even Broken Hill, this would have been useful to us but since we are no longer incorporated the natural environment of broken Hill it was no use to us but it was interesting to see the sculptures. When we got back to Mulberry vale, we planned where we would be going on the next research day. Since none of us have done a service we all agreed to do a service.

BLOGGING: Sunday 25th March 2012 After church, Bells Milk Bar, shopping and lunch we got an art workshop from a man who works at Broken Hill High School. This was very useful to us because he showed us how to draw something and surprisingly it was not what we expected. He told us to not look at what you’re painting but to focus on the object that you are trying to draw. He then taught us how to use charcoal and how to show lighting. After that he taught us how to paint a landscape painting. Even though we are not now focusing on the natural environment of Broken Hill, this really helped me to understand how to do paint the landscape of Broken Hill. We are planning that in some of our paintings that we are still going to have the Broken Hill landscape so this workshop was very helpful.



BLOGGING: Monday 26th March 2012 After a pretty late start, we assembled in the gallery at around 9:10. As soon as it was 9:15 the service groups had to leave. This included my group, as all have not done a service yet. Keertana, Claudia and I were going to the Aruma Lodge as we thought we could also gain some information. While Hyehee went to the RSPCA as she loves animals. After Aruma lodge we had lunch and then we gathered in the gallery for work. We had lots of fun at the Aruma Lodge and the RSPCA. We had lunch and then everyone gathered in the gallery. We figured out how we were going to present our final product. We decided to use 4 canvases but we will be splitting it into 2 halves. The top half will be terrain and the bottom will be subterranean. The 4 canvases will combine and form sort of a collage of our interpretation of the artists in Broken Hill. The subterranean part at the bottom will be focused on mining and is inspired by Kevin White. We have decided to use some of the little rocks found in the environment to represent some of the minerals. We will also sprinkle glitter over the rocks as Kevin White’s artworks sparkle, as they are real minerals. At the top we will use charcoal to show how dark the mines were without having headlights but only having a spider for light. The bottom will be like a timeline but not in detail. The very left will have a horse, which is pulling a carriage as in the olden days that's what happened down in the mines. The second one from the left will feature lots of people as many people were used to work in the mines. The third one will have less people and no animals. The last one from the left will feature no humans but lots of machines as nowadays not that many people actually mine underground as it is now mostly using machines. On the top however there will be a blue skyline and we will be using the technique of Clark Barrett as yesterday he demonstrated how to paint a Broken Hill skyline. We will also divide the top into 3 parts to represent 3 different artists. The first artist from the left will feature our replication of Boris Hlavia’s painting of the migrants. We will use the red dirt from the land of Broken Hill to incorporate our own version. It will feature camels and some Arabs. The second part from the left will be our replica of Geoff Demain’s artworks. We have decided to use the beads that are aboriginal colours to show the culture and stories. The last one will be our replica of Howard Steer’s artworks. We will feature the flying doctor and different cultures of people. We have also decided that while we are talking we will have a slideshow of photos and videos of us at art galleries doing our research. We will also put up some information about the artists we drew inspiration from. We have also changed our focus question again to: How does the natural environment influence the artists in Broken Hill? We changed it as none of us really knew what the cultural environment was in Broken Hill, so by changing our focus question to the natural environment we thought it would be much easier to answer.



BLOGGING: Tuesday 27th March 2012 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today we woke up and we went to Broken Hill high school. We had a mineral talk from a teacher that worked at the school. He gave everyone a small piece of Galina, which I thought was very generous of him. He also let us look at his mineral collection which was really interesting. We then got back together with the broken hill students and we played some fun interactive games to get to know each other. We then had another talk but with a aboriginal teacher. She showed us some of the artworks that aboriginal paint and this related to our research as for one of our canvases we are focusing on aboriginals. She told us that aboriginals usually paint a story of some sort. She also told us some stories that helped many other groups as well with their research. We then had a sausage sizzle lunch with the other kids and then we had to say our goodbyes. We then travelled to the Royal Flying Doctor headquarters. We had a talk with the padre where he told us many interesting things and stories. We then watched a small movie about what the royal flying doctor service does and how they help the lives of many people living in rural places. We then got to look at the museum and the gift shop where many people bought souvenirs. While we were doing all of this 4 lucky students got to experience what it was like to actually go and fly in a royal flying doctor plane. After we met up we all went back to Mulberry Vale where we had dinner. After dinner we all went back on the bus to go line dancing. It was very fun and I think everyone enjoyed it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">BLOGGING: Wednesday 28th March 2012 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After waking up very early we got on a bus to go to White Cliffs. After a very long trip we made it to White Cliffs where we had a talk. The people talked about the community of White Cliffs. It was very interesting. After the talk we had to travel another hour and half to go to Goodwood. When we finally made it there everyone was starving and we had lunch at a speakers lunch where she talked to us about the difficulties of living in such a rural place where there are no resources. It was very interesting to listen about how she copes and how she gets all her resources. We then all went back onto the bus to go to an Underground Hotel. Surprisingly it was not what I expected it to be. The hotel was actually just like normal ones except it was underground however the walls were quite uneven because it was underground and each room had an air vent where air could come in. The hotel wasn’t very deep underground but I thought it was very interesting. We then drove back to Wilcannia where we had a talk with a man who was an expert on Bush Tucker. He showed us a presentation of how bush plants can heal people and that they may be very delicious. He even showed us his garden which was shaped like an emu. After a very exhausting day we headed back to Mulberry Vale where we had dinner and then slept.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">BLOGGING: Thursday 29th March 2012 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We woke up to a day of hard work. We assembled in the gallery and we wrote our speech for Tuesday. After writing our speech we went outside so we could start our finish product. We decided to have only 3 canvases instead of 4 because even though we are focusing on 4 artists the subterranean part of the canvases are all focused on Kevin White so therefore we only need the terrain of 3 artists. First we got some charcoal and smudged it all along the bottom of the canvas. We then gathered rocks from Mulberry Vale and put glue all over the bottom half of the canvas. We left the rocks to dry and to stick while we did the sky for the top half. We then had lunch in our own cabins and while some went to the top up shop everyone else cleaned their cabins. We then had another work session where we finished the migrant and aboriginal painting. We have started the Howard William Steer painting and all we have to do is paint it. We mixed some water with glue and painted it over the rocks. This was a method of Wendy who was an artist at the Bush N Beyond gallery, which Hyehee and Michelle went to. We then thought that our artwork needed a name and so the name of our artwork: The Trilogy of Broken Hill was made. We then had to practice saying our speech as we were going to run through everyone’s presentation. After we presented we had time to pack our luggages for tomorrows big journey back to Sydney. We then had dinner and then after that we had a quick session of work where we could see our feedback from our run through. We had a lot of positives and we also have some things we need to improve on. For a first run I think our group did pretty well. We have all agreed on who is taking what artwork and we all wrapped them in cling wrap just to make sure nothing happens to them.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">BLOGGING: Friday 30th March – Milan’s Birthday <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a very early start we headed back to Sydney by first going on a 9 hour bus trip to Dubbo. We then had pies in the park and some free time. We then made the last 6 hours on a train back to Strathfield Station. While we were on the train we got our peer feedback from our run through of presentations. Pretty much all of the comments were positive and the group that graded us thought that we did a great job, which was good. We then as a group talked about that everyone during the weekend will need to update the wiki and schoology. Finally after an exhausting 2 weeks we made it back to Strathfield station where we were greeted by a mob of parents.