Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Neutral Colors

For thousands of years, Aborigines have created art for many purposes

including spiritual, ritual, and pleasure. Traditional Aboriginal art includes

painting or engraving on tree bark, the ground, or rocks (called petroglyphs), sculpture of hard sand or wood, body painting, and delicate basketry. Many traditional paintings featured patterns

of lines, waves, zigzags and dots.

Traditional artists including

Emily Kame Kngwarreye have used

neutral colors for their paintings.

Here is an example of the body painting that was traditionally done for special

dances and ceremonies.

Emily’s painting entitled, “Awelye,” shows “body markings” painted in many neutral

colors