For me… and hopefully for you also… Art has been a historical journey, as yet unfinished and I believe never will be. There is always something new about art.

Which started for me and perhaps yourself, in school Art classes, began as a curiosity and fascination to a struggle with techniques, use of colour, medium types and subject matter, and has become a lifetime obsession. enchantment and wonder. I still have the need to try and understand just ‘how did the artists do what they do.’

Likewise, when I first read an article about cave Art and engravings. I was seriously impressed with the skill, use of colour and what was being depicted…mainly animals or were the creatures on the menu! There were also bones found in these caves to, some used as tools…the Cave people certainly got into history creatively!  

They might simply have meant what painted on the cave wall as decoration, or the majesty and respect for the natural world around them. The same images are still being depicted today. We can only wonder at how this art first began? Was it a shape in the rock that spoke to them, suggesting the shape of the beast? Then they then just drew the outline and coloured in…what do you think? We’d love to know your thoughts and ideas about ‘how did the artist did that’?

There are caves everywhere in the world. There are over 50 million rock and cave art images globally in around 400 sites, so clearly this was both popular and enhancing people’s lives. That’s indicative of the creativity and innovation the earliest humans started with.

These UK caves are over 12,000 years old https://www.creswell-crags.org.uk/virtual-tour#church-hole . And there is 36,000 year old cave Art in Spain, https://www.cultura.gob.es/mnaltamira/home and there’s more information here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Altamira

Of course, there is much more and some date back even further to the Oldowan period from 2.6 million years ago. Prehistoric art also developed into other forms… these were believed to be used in religious rituals…more of this later, as art became more entangled with religion….and also promoting survival and success in bringing home the bacon… after all, there were no supermarkets then!

The cave art movement, if it can be called that… are the only records we still have about how art became part of our history. It would not be until the 4^th millennium, a big leap forward of about 55,000 years from the end of the prehistoric period, that we would have documented evidence of ‘how artists did that and why.’

If you would like to contribute or give some feedback please do. Otherwise, the next art movement will be posted here quite soon.

© Copyright 2018-2025 Galleria Balmain