Places in the country
Art Making Activities

Activity 1: Oil pastel drawing of Ayres Rock (or another outback landmark ) (Stage 3 students)
Study the screen print of Ayres Rock (Uluru) and then begin by lightly sketching your own composition in lead pencil on paper. Draw the horizon line first and add the shape of the rock in the background (resting on the horizon). Next draw some bushes or grass in front of the rock and include some interesting small animal/animals (like the guana) in the foreground (closest to you). Use colour oil crayons or pencils to colour in the drawing. The rock or earth colours should be a nice rich orange/brown and this looks very striking when you also have a blue sky and some green and yellow colours for the vegetation. What colours and patterns will you use for the animal/animals? Will they be easy to see amongst in the grasses and bushes?

Ayres Rock Alternative Activity (Stage 2 students):
Take a blank piece of paper outside to collect rubbings of textures using wax crayons overlapping red, yellow and blue coloured crayons (should create browns) and use these rubbing papers to cut large rock shapes or mountains. Paint a blue sky background using watercolour paints and when dry paste down cut shapes. Add any details you wish with the crayons.

Activity 2: Make an abstract landscape picture from scrap material (Stage 3 students)
First decide on what kind of landscape you want to make. You can try a few drawings out on paper but keep it simple, thinking about the shapes in a landscape rather than the details. Collect a range of different types of materials. Look for ones that have different textures, colours and patterns. Hessian makes a background material but you will need others for different objects. You can also use wool, jute, rope or cord for special effects.
Now using a piece of masonite or thick cardboard start laying down some outlines with pencil, or simply start laying down the actual fabric pieces. Once the design has been laid out and all of your pieces of fabric are cut, begin gluing everything down firmly. Use rope or jute or wool for special effects, like tree trunks or distant mountains, rivers etc. Use your imagination. Leave it to fully dry. You will now have made an abstract landscape assemblage picture!

Activity 3: Digital Photography (Stage 3 students)
If you can visit a farm use a digital camera to take long shots (set camera to landscape or panorama) of the sheds, outbuildings and fences in the landscape and then get very close (set camera to close up/flower type shots) to objects that are old and weathered, like fence posts and barbed wire to take some more detailed shots. Work hard to get the focus just right so that you see all the textures and fine lines. Select the best 4 to 6 shots (can trash others on camera) and than load the images onto the class computers. Your teacher can create a class slide show and everyone can view their shared images on the interactive whiteboard. Alternatively set up some still life arrangements of collected objects (class and teacher to find) that are from a farm environment and use artificial light to highlight the objects when taking shots in the classroom. You could incorporate textured cloth like hessian or use raffia or straw to make it look more natural.