Sand Paintings

Sandpainting or “dry painting”

Sandpainting is the art of pouring colored sands, powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, and pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed, or unfixed sand painting.

Tibetan Sand Painting

The sand paintings from Tibet are called Mandalas.

The sand is carefully placed on a large, flat table.

The construction process takes several days, and the mandala is destroyed shortly after its completion. This is done as a teaching tool and metaphor for "impermanence.”

Australian Aboriginal Sand Paintings

Aboriginal sand art is considered a ritual. It is used to signify territorial landmarks and

tells the history as well as the origin of the aborigines.

Aboriginal art pictures are mostly depicted in the ground or in desert sands and are characterized with concentric circles that signify the power of their sacred deity.

Concentric circles

Navajo Sand Paintings

“They are used in curing ceremonies in which the gods' help is requested for harvests and healing.”

They are spiritual and are to be treated with great respect.

Authentic sandpaintings are rarely photographed. Some medicine men may create pieces for exhibition purposes only, using reversed colors and variations.

ProjectThis project is going to be about what is sacred to YOU. You are going to create a design that represents who you

are.We are going to be creating these with dirt/sand collected

near the San Juan River.We are going outside to create these.You have to be done by the end of the class period.

Please write your name CLEARLY on a piece of paper and set it next to your “painting.”

We will blow them away at the end. Before you blow it away make sure I have taken a photo first.