Ice Age ❄️

As our temperatures plummet, this theme is befitting… Looking into our planet, people, animals, and plants of years gone by, during the magnificent and treacherous glacial periods.

Earth has experienced five major Ice Ages: The Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Karoo and Quaternary. We are currently living in the Quaternary Ice Age, which began around 2.5 million years ago. At this time, we are experiencing an interglacial period, a warmer phase, following the last glacial period that ended about 11,000 years ago.

Ice sheets, several kms thick, once covered N America & Eurasia. Getty Images. Pursuit article, Melbourne University

Ice Ages occur when Earth’s temperature drops slightly over long periods, often due to changes in Earth’s orbit that affect the amount of sunlight reaching the planet. During glacial periods, vast ice sheets formed, covering up to a third of the Earth and lowering sea levels by around 122 metres.

Extinct animals such as woolly mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths and woolly rhinoceroses roamed the planet. Early humans, Homo sapiens, also lived through these harsh conditions, adapting by making tools and hunting for food.

Glacial expanses and mammoths in an ancient ice age landscape, digitally recreated on Freepik

Art inspiration;

🎨 Create Ice Age wall art using animal symbols, horses, reindeer, bison, rhino, big cats and mammoth; hand/fingerprints and line symbols. These have spiritual significance.

🎨 Ice Age, the movie(s) by 20th Century Fox Studios, do you have a favourite character(s) or scene? Please draw them from whichever movie or TV show you enjoyed.

🎨 Take a closer look at the large animals, now extinct, Sabre Tooth Cats, Woolly Mammoth, Woolly Rhino, and the Giant Sloth. Maybe draw one in their icy home or their skeleton remains.

🎨 Glacial landscapes, standing tall, the ice shiny, the mountain tops and clouds. Reflect this in an artwork. How does the landscape look now?

🎨 Humans or Homo sapiens during the Ice Age. Different to how we are today, hunting, gathering, their clothing and life, look at creating a piece around this.

🎨 Create an abstract artwork showing ice formations, and think about the crystals. Maybe use printing, salt or cling wrap to disturb the surface and form cracks and crevices.

I look forward to sharing time and seeing your ideas come together. It will be a great evening of creativity! See you all soon 🙂 Wednesday evening, 7:30 pm UK time. Please join us on link-tree select All4Art https://linktr.ee/all4inclusion