We learnt that Sidney Nolan was also fascinated by the Ned Kelly stories and painted a series of paintings that told of his interpretation of some of the events in Ned's life and of the landscape in which it happened.
Students then chose colours to depict the land and the sky in the Victorian countryside. They created a horizon and applied the paint in different ways to create their desired effects. Most students also printed a line of trees on their horizon to help create a feeling of distance and space, like Sidney Nolan did.
Then came the challenge of putting something of the Ned Kelly story into their painting. Students chose collage, drawing with pastels or textas, painting or drawing on a piece of white paper then cutting and pasting.
One student was fascinated that Sidney Nolan had painted Ned Kelly disguised in women's clothing to avoid police, so her Ned has a dress, red wig and high heels!
A lot of the students were excited that this was one time that the "No Guns In Art" rule was relaxed and took advantage of including guns, bullets and blood in their art work.
The resulting work looks absolutely fantastic with evidence of really effective use of space with the placement of their Ned Kellys.
