Paddy Stewart Japaljarri

Jukurrpa Dreaming

Paddy Japaljarri Sims was born in about 1917 at Kunajarray (Mt Nicker), south-west of Yuendumu at a site where a number of Dreaming tracks interconnect. When he died in 2010 in Yuendumu. He left behind his wife Bessie Nakamarra, his seven children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Paddy sometimes worked in collaboration with his wife, who was an acclaimed artist in her own right. His wife lived in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She died in 2012. Paddy lived in his country as a young, single man. Back then Warlpiri people wore hair string belts that they had made. When Japaljarri was young he worked sawing mulga trees for wood and for fuel for fires. Later Paddy became involved with gardening and farming in the Yuendumu district. This included growing watermelons, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and other vegetables. The farming was at Four Mile Bore where they had chickens, pigs, ducks and other animals. All his life he hunted for goanna, kangaroo, emu and other animals each day for bush tucker and Paddy passed on his hunting knowledge to many young men in the community. This also led him to working at the Yuendumu school teaching Jukurrpa (Dreaming), painting, hunting, traditional dancing, bush tucker and helping out on excursions 'out bush' as well as to Alice Springs and Darwin. Paddy Painted with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre, for a long time. In 1988 Paddy Sims was selected by The Power Gallery, Sydney University to travel to Paris with five other Warlpiri men from Yuendumu to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition 'Magiciens de la Terre' at the Centre Georges Pompidou. The trip took place in May 1989 and the painting was received with world-wide acclaim. Paddy was also one of the senior male artists who worked on the Yuendumu Doors. In 2000 Paddy Japaljarri Stewart undertook to produce 30 etchings of the original Yuendumu Doors in collaboration with Paddy Japaljarri Sims and under the guidance of Basil Hall, Northern Editions Printmaker (Northern Territory University). The first print of the etchings was all on one page and had its debut alongside the Yuendumu Doors when they were exhibited in Alice Springs. The etchings in a set were launched in 2001, to great acclaim with the set winning the Telstra, 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, for works on paper. Paddy has painted and exhibited regularly with Warlukurlangu Artists both nationally and internationally since 1985. Japaljarri's Jukurrpa stories or Dreamings include Yiwarra (Milky Way), Ngarlkirdi/Warna (witchety grub/snake), Warlu Kukurrpa (fire), and Yanjirlpirri (star). In his early work he often chose to work in tones of blue, pink and purple but later used traditional iconography and an unrestricted palette to develop a modern individualist style to depict his traditional Jukurrpa. His work has been included in numerous general exhibitions of Aboriginal art including Dreaming: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1988; The Continuing Tradition, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989; Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert...

Yannima Tommy Watson is a Pitjantjatjara artist born around the 1930s, in the bush some 44km west of the small isolated community of Irrunytju. Not yet very well known to the French public, despite his participation in the architectural project of the Musée du Quai Branly, Tommy Watson is nevertheless often considered the greatest living Aboriginal artist. Like many aborigines of his generation, he lived a traditional, nomadic or semi-nomadic life before his contact with Western civilization; then he will occupy the only jobs that the Aborigines find: herdsmen (until Yuendumu), laborers for the construction of infrastructures in the desert. Throughout this period he became familiar with his "country", a harsh region, and deepened his knowledge, both profane and sacred, relating to Dreams and Dreamtimes, to the connections between sacred sites and the Ancestors. He will even work in Papunya, where the artistic movement started. But the Pijantjarra are intransigent with tradition…no question at this time of revealing the motives and the secret stories. The North of South Australia, the region where he is from, was touched by the pictorial movement only at the very beginning of the 2000s. In 2001, Tommy began his career as an artist in Irrunytju (Wingellina). He is a young artist… He learns by observing other painters and draws on the experiences of a long life and on the exceptional knowledge he has stored up. But quickly he will find his way, a radically new style where color plays a major role. Very quickly, the iconography now well known by the artists of Yuendumu, or the Western Desert, Balgo or Lajamanu disappeared. The symbols are no longer there. As Rover Thomas...

Judy Watson Napangardi was born around 1935 at Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional ...

Kathleen (or Kweyetwemp in her Eastern Anmatyerre tongue) Petyarre was born c. 1940 at Atnangkere on Utopia Station, 270km north east of Alice Springs. She first encountered white man in the late 1940s and starting her integration into western society when working on various pastoral leases as she grew up. In 1969 she was successful in applying for a job at Utopia school where she stayed for 20 years. During that time she worked on batik, and then started painting as part of CAAMA's Summer Project in 1988-89. In 1996 Kathleen won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) and her painting career blossomed from there. She has been exhibited overseas numerous times and in 2001 had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In general, her work is minimalistic and characterised by the fine dotting technique she uses to represent mental maps of her country. Her signature work is the Mountain or Thorny Devil Lizard Dreaming, which gives a unique representation of this small creature's travels across Kathleen's country during the Creation era. Another signature genre is Bush Seeds. Kathleen Petyarre is a blood sister of the respected artists Gloria, Violet and Ada Bird Petyarre, a great niece of the feted Emily Kame Kngwarreye and skin sister to Jeannie and Rosemary Petyarre. She is extensively exhibited in public and private galleries. Kathleen spent her time between Alice Springs and her home country, Utopia. Dr Christine Nicholls reported that Kathleen passed away on 24 November 2018 in Alice Springs, surrounded by family and loved ones, at about the age of 80. Awards and Recognition 2002 Top...

Michael Nelson Tjakamarra (also cited as: Michael Nelson Jagamarra, or Jakamara) is a Senior Warlpiri Tribesman and an Elder of the Papunya Community in central Australia. Born c. 19...

Born in the South of France in 1926 and raised by very strict parents, Jean Sanglar was prohibited from playing with same age mates. Truly talented, as a young boy he drew frequentl...

Kimberly Marney Shimmers (Abstract, Landscape, Deep Blue, Pointillism) 2023 Acrylic on Canvas Size: 36x24x1.5in Signed by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-2000 Tags: Abstract, Landsca...

This painting, like most of Ren Hui’s exquisite artworks, celebrates his subjects using a style that he calls “uncomplicated and honest.” The beautiful pattern of gold on a bright red field, featured here, is called "Tiananmen Lion." The artist uses a pure and deliberate approach by highlighting a polarizing place and moment in Chinese history...

Entitled "Tree Talk," this exquisite painting by Chinese artist Ren Hui celebrates the beauty of nature with an abstracted view of a tangle of tree branches. Using a style he calls “...

This interesting Mid Century Modern abstract pointillist cityscape oil on canvas painting is by Le Boreux (France, 20th Century). It depicts a colorful and vibrant brutalist cityscap...

Colorful landscape painting "Harvest Fields" by artist H.M. Saffer II. Painted in the style of pointillism, a series of tiny painted brushstrokes , this 44x44 oil landscape features tilled fields in vivid orange and yellow colors. In the distance is green fields and a cloud filled sky. About the artist: Born July 18, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, H.M. Saffer II launched his career by exhibiting his art at a public art show at the tender age of six. Upon graduation from Temple University in 1965, he traveled to Paris, France to enroll in graduate economics courses. Concurrently, HM's path took a different twist, as he soon leveraged his musical talent performing with notable French stars Hugues Aufray, Jacques Brel, Charles Aznavour, and many others. He was later hired by Barclay Records as a producer, and had several hit records in 1968 and 1969. During this period, he was also the chef / owner of two restaurants in Paris, and later a third located in Ibiza, Spain. Remarkably, as engaged as he was, HM never stopped painting and exhibiting his works. Several of his shows - sponsored by his restaurants and music associates - "sold out" and were favorably written up by the press. Before returning to the United States in 1970, he completed selected studies at L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts and exhibited in Paris and Brussels, Belgium. HM continued on with his music career in the United States at Warner Brothers Productions where he co-wrote the international hit song, "Look What They Done To My Song, Ma", recorded by Ray Charles, Melanie and other performers. While at Warner he painted a forty foot mural in their Madison Ave., NY headquarters and exhibited his works in the firm's lobby. In 1972 HM was hired by the dynamic songwriter/producer Bob Crewe as Senior Vice President for the Crewe Group of companies where he worked with the industry's top names including Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Vicki Carr, and Oliver. Later that year, he established HMS Two Music Ltd. and spent his time writing and producing music for films, commercials, recordings and Broadway productions. HM's work in the commercial field is familiar to us all with creations for Pepsi, Mountain Dew...

Colorful landscape painting on canvas "Water Dance IV" 30x24 by artist H.M. Saffer II. Painted in the style of pointillism, a series of tiny painted brushstrokes , this oil landscape depicts a tree blossoming white flowers, reflected off a body of purple and blue waters. About the artist: Born July 18, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, H.M. Saffer II launched his career by exhibiting his art at a public art show at the tender age of six. Upon graduation from Temple University in 1965, he traveled to Paris, France to enroll in graduate economics courses. Concurrently, HM's path took a different twist, as he soon leveraged his musical talent performing with notable French stars...