So easy a caveman can do it

chauvet During the last workshop I mentioned the cave paintings of Chauvet Pont D'arc and how impressive they are. There is a lot to the story of how they got done if you think about it. First of all they were done between 34,000 and 3o,ooo years ago. They predate other cave paintings nearby by 10's of thousands of years. Let's just get that out there. Second, they are not your average caveman drawings. There's an adept line, a natural form and a thoughtful artistic representation of the regional animals at the time; lions, rhinos and bears. Oh my. Third, they are in a cave. Not just in the front of the cave but all the way back in there. So you can imagine this individual or individuals having to run out, find a lion or a rhino, give it a good hard look and then haul ass back to the back end of a dark cave to put up what was seen and noted. Think about that. It's hard enough to get something right when you are looking right at it. Look at these examples, they are darn accurate. It's not like they could google a rhino and sketch it off the laptop.

The really interesting thing to me is who taught these guys? Did they have life drawing back then? They didn't even have language so how would the master artist transfer the knowledge down to the pupil?  It's really amazing to see these drawings and realize just how difficult it was to get these images up in a dark cave. No model, no heat, iffy light source, no language, no art store and life reference that would just as soon eat you as pose for you.  I'll post a link so you can visit the caves and see them for yourself.