Paperbark Paintings

Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark.

Bark for Indigenous Australian bark painting is cut from the trunk of the stringybark tree (Eucalyptus tetradonta) during the wet season. At this time the high moisture content within the bark facilitates its removal.

The rough, outer bark is stripped off and the thinned inner bark dried and flattened by placing the bark onto a fire, to cure and reduce moisture content. Later the surfaces are scraped and flattened with weights, and in some cases restraining sticks are attached at each end of the painting.

Pigments are traditionally ground on a stone and the powder mixed with water and a binding medium, such as orchid juice, beeswax, fats, egg yolk, tree and plant gums or resins.