Dot paintings can vary from very fine marks neatly arranged on a page, to large dotting in an array of colours. Sometimes these merge into lines or wide areas of connected dots with a 'stippled' effect.  The defining criterion is the technique used -  repeated imprints of a 'stick' like item such as the end of a paintbrush or dotting stick, which results in clear dot marks on the canvas. Acrylic paint is the more commonly used for dot paintings.  Often this paint is highly textured with a raised surface or flat.  Some of the most proficient dot work is done by using well mixed acrylic paint with a high thickness, which dries with a raised appearance. Dots range from very fine work, created using think sticks, to much larger dots (up to 4cm diameter). The patterns may be very neat or they may be very wild and unstructured. The latter type are usually very expressionist in their style.

 

There are several theories as to how they originated:

1) People were so concerned that others may be able to understand the sacred parts of their stories. Drawing a painting in the sand was 'safe' as it was smoothed away afterwards, but the permanence of acrylic paint raised concern about inappropriately revealing secret information in the future. As a result, 'overdotting' was a technique developed to 'obscure' the sacred information underneath it. The works of Galya Pwerle and Johnny Warangkula shown beneath demonstrate this. This practice has generally fallen away as most westerners do not understand the iconography in aboriginal art anyway.

 

2) Educational sand drawings carried out by people in the Central Desert were made up of line and dot work. The dotting style of Aboriginal artists from this area evolved from their sand drawings as they began to translate their stories to canvas. 

 

3) The land itself is the subject matter for many Aboriginal artworks. This is often completely studded with 'dot like stones, spinifex plants, flowers and distant trees.' The theory is that the dotted appearance of the land inspired its representation in dot patterns.  

 

(Kate Owen Gallery 2014)