Rosie Ngwarraye Ross, one of our favourite Central Desert artists, painting in the art centre with fellow artists on what’s bound to be a hot day but they like to stay rugged up when it’s anything less than 40 degrees!
Rosie uses a bold palette to capture her love of the wild desert flowers and bush medicine plants found across her Country.
The omission of the sky in many of this groups compositions allows you to scan the landscape without any focal point thereby drawing your eye across the painting - in no particular order. It is when looking at these works, sometimes for the umpteenth time, we find something new. Almost like it’s secret.
We have a new Rosie in stock which will share with you in a blog early next week. Keep an eye out for it when it’s uploaded for sale on the website. It reminds us of a Monet…
Papunya Tula is the legendary site where the contemporary Aboriginal art movement bloomed becoming famous for its Western Desert dot art.
Amongst the different displaced Western Desert people's brought to Papunya Tula (Tula meaning small hill where a Honey ant dreaming sits) were Tommy Watson, Clifford Possum and Ningura Napurrula, each of whom went on to become wildly successful international artists.
The original company now operates from Alice Springs but we paid a visit to the existing art centre and found some of the sacred iconography depicted in the early works honoured while developing new interpretations of their ancient Dreamtime stories.
We had to keep a respectful distance while photographing the artists. Close up the paintings were breathtaking. Below is the landscape around the art centre.
My Country, Wallpaper GREEN is a translation of a painting by Lilly Kemarre Morton, depicting the Australian outback: bush tucker & bush medicine plentiful after the rains.
Notice the sugar bag tree, rendered here in yellow by Lilly – a natural bee sweetener found in tree hollows, it is a favoured motif of hers.
Lilly's husband is the legendary Banjo Petyarre Morton, who led the historical Aboriginal stockmen walk-offs of 1949, successfully winning the fundamental right to earn wages instead of rations.
Bay Gallery Home's My Country Wallpaper, GREEN.
Lilly's landscapes beautifully communicate the rich knowledge she possesses of both medicinal plants and country, the heart of her culture.
As a young girl, Lilly lived traditionally off of the land with her family and Alyawarr people. In Lilly's lifetime, she has experienced and borne witness to the irreversible changes of country and way of life, previously unchanged for thousands of years.
She is now a kind and gentle elder of the community, and often tells her family and friends stories of how life used to be in Alywarre, her language. These stories are also a great inspiration for many of the artists within the community.
Lilly is passionate about nature, especially her country and the plants that grow on it, and though she has little English, she is ever keen to explain the various bush medicines which she depicts in her paintings.
