Aleksys H.'s Family Story

The picture depicted on this rock is a representation of my family, which consists of my wonderful husband and my beautiful baby girl. The sun is shining as we are spending a day at the park.

Lauren W. Nature Girl!

A boy riding his horse through the field on a summers day.

Bobby S. tells All!

Casey R. Tells her story!

My picture is supposed to depict my children and I working on our garden.

Shelly R.'s Prehistoric Story!

Dorothy H. Goes Prehistoric!

When asked to make a modern day cave painting I was actually excited about the idea and had many natural items run through my mind that I could possibly use as paint or as a paint brush. The hard part was deciding what to paint that would be a good representation of my family and possibly be something similar to what would be seen in an actual cave painting. I finally decided to paint a buck (male deer) to represent my father since he enjoys hunting and we often eat the deer meat and a tree for my mother because she is very natural and is the person who helps hold our family together and helps us grow. For my paint I used a mixture of honey, roasted squash, chicken poop, and dirt. I decided to use a chicken feather as my paint brush but also ended up having to use my finger to get the paint to spread out since it had a texture to it. I had a few issues when painting which included the paint being to watery and my paint brush not spreading the paint as well. I fixed these problems by dumping out the extra water and using my finger in the end instead of the feather. Overall I enjoyed the project and enjoy driving by the barn and seeing my painting.

Nancy's Cave Painting!

April S.'s Big Adventure!

When that big storm happened in the first week of July me and my family sat outside on our front porch and watched the storm because our power went out.During the process of the storm a tree on our property was blown down and fell across the road blocking one lane of traffic. You cant really see the tree I painted being blown down because it blended into the tree stumps edge. You can clearly see brown marks that I meant to be the wind blowing. I thought it would be interesting to paint it on what was left of the tree stump after the rest of it was cut down. I also made my paint brush out of one of the splintered ends off the tree.

Becky F.'s Painting

Pilar G. Shares her work!

Christina N. Back to the past!

My modern “cave painting” was done on the side of my house. I used canola oil and dirt from my yard as the paint. The paintbrush was from a fern like tree in the yard. I decided to paint a pond with fish. I made a relaxing setting with the sun shining and the birds flying around. My life is so hectic it is nice to look at a peaceful piece of art. I drew three fish in the water because I have three boys. I wanted to incorporate my kids in it. I very much enjoyed this assignment.

Fall Semester 2012 Cave Paintings starts with Lauren R

We're starting this semester off with a bang! Check out Lauren R.'s amazing painting! Lauren says:

I made a paint brush from varies grasses I found in a field and pine needles and tied them to it stick using multiple pieces of grass until they held firmly in place. Then I mixed honey with red clay from my yard and attempted to portray a modern horse on a large concrete portion of our drive way. The grass part of the brush absorbed the mixture much better than the pine needles for easier application.

Aura's Family!

This photo is of the “paint” I used. I combined dirt from my yard with water, then I added some crushed grapes in hopes of giving my mud-paint some color. The grapes did not add any color to the paint. I used some weeds from my flower bed to make a brush. I braided the weeds and tied them in a knot to the stick I used for mixing. The weeds did not hold up very well and about a quarter of the way through my painting the weeds fell off and I finished the painting with the end of the stick. This is my cave painting. I painted it on the side of my house. It tells the story of when my kids and I moved from Florida to Virginia.

Nereyda in Nature!

My painting is a family and dog out in the country admiring the mountains and the birds flying above. I did my painting on a big tile outside my house, since I did not have a large rock or other hard surface. I did my painting by using some dark dirt that was outside and mixed the dirt with water.

Tanisha's Big Adventure!

For my cave painting I used a stick with hair for the paintbrush. I used water, mud and oil to make the paint. The painting is a picture of my grandmother house with a big tree beside it. I chose to paint this picture because every weekend when I was younger me and my brother stayed with my grandmother on the weekends and I remember the big haunted looking tree that was in her yard.

Quanesha's Family!

I wanted to show my family and the love that we have for each other in my painting that is why I added the hearts. The stick figure with the cigarette with the smoke coming from it is my grandma, she smokes like a train. The stick figure beside her with the afro is my sister, she had big curly hair. The stick figure on top is my mother. I put her on top of the other two because she is the head of my family and she makes sure everyone is taken care of. I made my paint from a natural make up powder, a little dirt and some olive oil.

Shannon's Wild Life!

The Brush - made of cow bone, horsehair and (artificial) sinew The Brown Paint – salt, cornstarch, water and dirt The Red Paint – salt, cornstarch, water and blackberries The Painting – “Family with Sea Cow” this painting is about my family’s love for the beach and our love for the sea creatures that live in the ocean. The “Sea Cow” or Manatee is one of our favorites because they are so gentle yet so big. I painted and took the pictures at night so that I would have more of a “cave-like” feeling. My dog guarded me from any wildlife that might come by in the night. I tried paint mixed with teak oil but it was too runny so I used the cornstarch, salt and water instead. I tried using a stick for details but my brush worked much better. I really enjoyed this project and will use it in my classroom.

Susan P. and her Pup!

I also used a lilac leaves as they are shaped like hearts. I covered the leaf in mud and then pressed it on the 'canvas'. I tried to get my dog to help with the paw prints but she wasn't interested so I used my thumb instead. The flowers kept falling down from the crepe myrtle above the walkway so I decided I would add them to the piece, too.

Jake Q. at Home!

For my cave art I used a piece of charcoal as my "brush" to draw my house. I used mud and dead grass to make the roof and add texture. For the sun I used a yellow tulip poplar leaf. The grass is made out of pine needles.

Jasmine W. Goes to Sea!

I used paprika, water, & honey to make a dark red pigment. I wanted to use a deep red to bring some intensity into the painting. The circular figure with the swirls represents the sun and a crab and the other figure is a shark. I recently went crabbing with my mother and we spotted far off from the pier what appeared to be a baby shark. The triangular shape above the crab represents the location of the fishing pier and the spot where we find the most crabs.

Marien Goes Prehistoric on this Assignment!

Limestone composite rock, marigold flowers, mud, slate etchings, on concrete. This is a "cave painting" of the deer that can be seen grazing along the railroad tracks in my neighborhood. Although I live almost in the center of Charlottesville, deer actually travel into town upon the tracks, and can be seen in small herds late at night alongside them. I utilized a sharp slice of slate to etch the outlines, filling in the silhouettes with either the white lime composite stone or brown mud ground in with marigolds. In keeping with other cave paintings, such as the ones found at Lascaux, I attempted to make the animals as naturalistic as possible, while rendering the railroad tracks as basic, and almost as abstract, as possible. I found all these materials in my backyard.

Will Weighs In!

To make the painting, I used two kinds of mud and clay; a darker topsoil from the woods and a bright orange clay from the lawn. For a brush, I found a root and frayed the very tip of it make it produce similar strokes to a real paintbrush. At first I tried to keep the clay dryer, but it clumped easily, so I got it as wet as possible, which worked nicely. The painting itself is a depiction of a group, most likely a family, as they construct a house by bringing the building materials to it. This represents the effort and unity required to produce happiness and industry within the home.

Alex C. Explores Nature!

I tried to think of what may have been remaining in the caves of Virginia had they not been such a damp place. The First image is of a deer hunt. The second is my attempt to document the construction of an arrowhead. The arrowhead suffered from a lack of definition. The brush was made of a bundle of leaves lashed to a stick (although I ended up mostly just using the stick). The paint was ground charcoal suspended in mud.

James F. Kicks It Old School!

The cave painting is a picture of my family. In the picture is my father, mother, brother, and sister and I tried to portray them as best I could with my caveman paintbrush (My dad doesn't wear a tophat, but it seemed fitting to make it clear it was a man). We are a soccer playing family and it is one of our favorite things to do together so at the bottom I tried to draw myself kicking a soccer ball towards one of the two goals. My paintbrush was a strong piece of mulch and was nice and short so I could control my strokes better. The paint was made from red clay that I dug up from my own backyard and mixed with a little bit of water and some honey to keep the consistency. It took about ten minutes to make sure that most of the red clay I used was crushed into fine powder, but once it was fine the clay mixed very well with the water and honey.

Kristina C Shares some sunshine!

I created a cave painting of my family. Me and my fiance are the two tall ones and my 6 year old is next and then the baby. I used water as my medium and mixed it with dirt to create mud for my paint. I also used a stick with a large and small end for my brush.

Brittany H.'s Olympic Spirit!

I tried to make someone holding the olympic torch in honor of the up coming games in London.

Ming K.'s Super painting!

When you asked me a story about my family in this assignment, I first think of my father, my idol, and I come from a Chinese family. And since I saw most of the cave paintings depicted animals as the main character, I choose a snake to represent my father. It is not only because I do think of snake as a hard-working, smart, and strong animal, but also, in Chinese, my father’s zodiac sign is a snake. During the process, I first used piece of leaf that tied with a tree stick as my “paintbrush”, and some mud mixed with water as my medium. Soon, I realized that it is too hard to draw a thick line with my “paintbrush”. Therefore, I have picked a tree stick as my second “paintbrush” in order to draw a thick line.

Jacob D and Julie D ROCK the assignment!

The first photo is my little sister Julie and I playing tag and Frisbee. She's 6. She drew the next one, which is the sun, because "we have to have the sun to be able to see the Frisbee." The next one is our initials, Jake and Julie. The brush is hard to see, but I broke off a sapling and frayed the end. The paint is mud (brown), charcoal (black), and fresh leaves (green).

Mark K. and His Dog!

Here we have my interpretation of a cave painting. It's a rather simple drawing of what I feel I'm doing all the time, which is walking my dog - and I have left nothing for the imagination for the exception of whether my head is that round and lacks hair. After experimenting with a couple different items to use as a paint brush, I found a simple piece of mulch from my yard which worked well, especially since I wasn't going for any fine lines. The "paint" was red clay dirt from the yard mixed with water. I chose not to use oil as I needed to make sure it was easily cleaned up before the neighbors complained.

Aura W.'s Painting!

This photo is of the “paint” I used. I combined dirt from my yard with water, then I added some crushed grapes in hopes of giving my mud-paint some color. The grapes did not add any color to the paint. I used some weeds from my flower bed to make a brush. I braided the weeds and tied them in a knot to the stick I used for mixing. The weeds did not hold up very well and about a quarter of the way through my painting the weeds fell off and I finished the painting with the end of the stick.

Laura R Takes a Hike!

I live with my brother and the two of us love to go hiking, so I painted us together climbing a mountain. He usually is the leader because I tend to lead us off the trail without noticing. I follow closely behind. Our footsteps show the trail we have taken around the mountain. The mountain in the distance is the one we will summit next. The brush, pictured on the side, is a tall weed I pulled out of the edge of our yard. I pulled the majority of the leaves off the stem, leaving only the thicker bunch at the top. For the paint, I mixed the red dirt from under the porch with water. The handprints were made before the painting, after I had mixed the dirt and water together using my hands and had brought nothing outside with me to wipe them off with. My brother will be confused when he comes home and sees my project in front of the front door on the cement landing at the top of the steps.

Michelle A. goes prehistoric!

I picked some grass in the yard which was more like a weed that had four pieces sticking out the top. I used like 5 of those to make the bush part. I took some string off the mop and tied the grass to a stick. There was my paintbrush. lol. For the paint I decided to use two colors. I started with oil and mixed the red dirt from the yard. The other one I used leaves on a grader and mixed it with oil as well. The picture I was trying to depict was that of a dog groomer. That is my profession at the moment. I painted me supposedly holding clippers, then a grooming table with what was supposed to be a dog. This was fun after all !!!

Megan S. goes wild!

This was my THIRD consecutive attempt at this (you should have seen my carport...it looked like children made 1000 mudpies and left them there to bake...) I only had one color of mud since the EPA replaced the top three feet of topsoil in my entire yard a few years ago(woo hoo!)....and the Little Man was pretty eager to help, so he got a bucket of mud and water, too. I think his turned out better than mine and in retrospect, I probably should have taken a photo of his and claimed it as my own... ;) My brush was a stick, that I initially used exactly as I found...but after a few failed attempts, I realized that smooshing the end with a rock made it able to hold more mud and also able to spread it around more efficiently. I used dirt from my yard and mixed it with honey and water to make a thick sort of paste. The thing on the left that looks like a Christmas Tree - that's me, and the little asterisk next to me is my almost-two-year-old son, Quinn. The three ant-looking things were supposed to be his three dogs, Bobo, Atticus and Whiskey. When I showed them to Quinn - he didn't recognize them at all, so obviou

sly I didn't do them justice. The thing that looks like a devil is actually a bull, and the strange thing next to it - well, that's a bear. Bull & Bear: Because I work in the stock markets. I thought I was being clever at the time by trying to tell the story of my everyday life. Baby comes first, then my job, then my home life (the dogs) are below everything else on the totem pole.

Andrea D's Painting!

I tried to paint a table with people around it, representing my family and friends having dinner. I love having big meals and a good time with everyone. There's also a dog, a tree, the sun and some birds flying. I used dirt, red mulch, vanilla extract, chocolate powder and water to mix it up. I also tried to glue some weeds with the vanilla extract on the tree. For the brush I used some weeds and a stick from a flower.

Tiffanie's Painting!

For my Cave Painting I used a Paint Stick with pieces of Hay for the paint brush. I used water and dirt from my garden to make the brown color. The story is I have a family of three and we have a dog and we live on a farm. We believe in God and that is why I put the cross in my picture. I really had fun with this project!!

Jen's Cave Painting!

For my painting, I used a stick, the top of a branch from some bushes, and my fingers as my paintbrushes; the stick and branch are at the top right of my picture. I used mud from last night's rain as my paint. On the left is a swimming pool, then on the right are three people, me and two happy swimmers. I did this on my back deck so I'd have a flat surface. I used seeds I found in my back yard to make eyes and smiles on the people. I teach swim lessons in the summer, and I did this right after I got home from the pool today. Some chlorine water from my ponytail dripped on the picture as I was making it, so I've even got some chlorinated water mixed in too.

Brian M's painting!

my cave painting depicting my saturday spent sailing with my son. charcoal and water on stone. with a brush of evergreen.

Alyssa's painting!

For my cave painting I started by collecting the items for the paintbrush. The handle is made out of a piece of cracked bamboo found behind an apartment complex in an area of bamboo trees. For the bristles I used dried pine needles still attached to the thin branch and slid them into the center of the bamboo. As far as the paint, I used dirt and water and experiment with different textures. I drew my husband, myself and our dog going on a walk like we always do when its nice out. Finally, and added some tiny, colorful leaves for my hair.

Devon B. Paints up a storm!

Michael S. Redecorates Cave Style!

This was fun and easy! Looks like it was made over a thousand years ago! I outlined my hand with a burned piece of wood (blue), which worked wonderfully. My brush (orange) was made out of a stick that resembled a slingshot. It allowed the dog hair to nestle in between the two posts nicely. I then secured the brush by wrapping thick grass blades that made a fine rope. Altogether both worked well to produce the images. I decided to outline my hand which was shown a lot in the reading. I then added our dog, Emily and I. For Emily’s hair I used a mixture of clay and dirt to match her hair color perfectly. ☺ I added some orange tinged from the clay around our dog. I then created a symbol above us all, and highlighted it again with the orange clay.

Ashley R's Painting!

I created my paintbrush out of a stick, a bird feather and a few pieces of hay (or straw; I'm not sure which one it is) that I found at my aunts' house in Gilmer County West Virginia. I used red mud to create my painting on a rock

Christopher Harlow's info!

I used grass for a Paintbrush and an old board and mud mixed with oil for my painting. It is supposed to be a man fishing in a boat, but my kids call it a spaceman catching a shark. It was a fun project.

Christopher Harlow fishes!

Veronica's Siblings!

have three siblings. They are JB the tallest stick figure, then Derby the second stick figure, he is my youngest brother and the two stick figures that have the same height are my twin sister Barbara and I (Veronica). I am the oldest of four children.

Adnan P's Masterpiece!

This painting depicts my family. The taller and stronger figures demonstrate my parents. The figure in front is me. It sy

mbolizes that my parents always have my back and care for me so this is why I stay in front. I hope you like my master peace :)

Will K's Prehistoric Story!

Nathaniel "rocks" the past!

I basically used sharp rocks to mark my canvas rock like a pencil. I then used some mud for shadows. I tried working with a hand made brush from a plant but that didn't really work. It may be hard to see but it's a picture of four figures out in the sun and next to a stream. On the left side is like a thick mixture of edges. It's meant to be a picture of my family and I in the present and looking to the left. The left symbolizes the future which is unknown. Almost a way of saying the present is certain but the future is unclear.

Roberta B rules!

This was very difficult. My paint brushes made from twigs and leaves kept breaking. I could not get the clay to a good consistancy. I attempted to make other colors by crushing begonia petals but that did not work. I have a new found respect for Cave Art.

Basia N. makes prehistoric computer imagery!

My image depicts me on the left sitting at my desk, at the keyboard with the computer screen in front of me. It was a little challenging with the raw materials as the red clay in my yard is very sandy and gritty. I chose to use my finger to create my 'work of art' as my original choice of a chewed stick did not render the image I wanted.

Meagan R. makes her mark!

I made my paint brush out of a thich stick from the tree and i took plant grass and made it for the end of the brush. For the art work I took a stone from the side of the house and mixed red mud from the ground with the water from the lake next door and made a drawing of me and the little girl I watch during the week. We always play outside so I made a sun in the top right corner of the stone.I also tried to add eyes and a smile but the face was limited with space.

La Trina goes prehistoric!