Week 12

"Bush Medicine Leaves"

Product Code: 15091

Acrylic on Canvas

120 cm x 60 cm

Margaret Scobie

The above Bush Medicine Leaves painting is one of many variations that Margaret Scobie has created. 

Margaret has drawn inspiration from her culture, surrounding environment and in particular the body painting seen from her Anmatyerre heritage, found within the Northern Territory.

A multitude of colours have been incorporated, in particular the warm desert tones, to define each leaf and create contrast. Each fine stroke starts and curves in the opposite direction and is repeated till a cluster is formed. This cluster has the physical shape of lady finger bananas. These clusters are the appearance of leaves with there unpredicted and free flowing nature.

As an interpretation, the overall feel is bush medicines leaves in summer. The fine strokes are closely intertwined between each cluster to give the interpretation of a medicine bush leaves from above. The series of colours are eye catching and have a warming and friendly feel. Bush Medicine Leaves is a painting that once again can be viewed by all audiences and has a continuous flow. Its simplistic strokes form together to create the overall piece and shows that simplistic strokes and an artistic eye can transform and depict anything.  

Week 11

"Wild Yam Flower", 2012

Catalogue: 5753

Acrylic on Linen

180 cm x 120 cm

Dulcie Long Pula (Pwerle)

Wild Yam Flower is Dulcie's depiction of the bush yam. The bush yam is a vegetable that is grown beneath the ground, with a pretty flower seen above ground. 

Dulcie's surrounding environment and cultural background has spurred her interest and 

exploration of the bush yam through the artistic pathway.

As seen in the two smaller images above, the Wild Yam Flower is created using acrylic paint on linen. A series of strokes at various sizes are used to help create depth and movement through each section. The warm summer dessert tones are used to help define each petal and also to help show the movement, flow and depth of each petal. 

Its intriguing looking at the pressure points of each stroke. The paint/pressure is thickest at one end and trail off as the brush moves in the opposite direction to the initial point of contact. 

Individually, each stroke has its own flow and direction, although when viewed from afar and colour is introduced, the overall meaning is seen. 

This painting is completely and utterly stunning. As mentioned above, the movement and flow between each petal is intriguing and eye catching. Its simplistic strokes placed together help create and understand the story and meaning behind this painting. Its contemporary and abstract style is universal and can be appreciated by all audiences.

Similar to Dulcie's above painting Wild Yam Flower, below is another interpretation of the 

bush yam in blue and white tones.  You can see similarities between the two 

paintings and the intricate pattern.

Wild Yam Flower

Catalogue: 5748

Acrylic on Canvas

90 cm x 59 cm

Dulcie Long Pula (Pwerle)

Week 10

Walka Tjukula

By Karen Kulyuru

As mentioned in a previous post, Walka is any meaningful marking found within the environment. 

Karen's interpretation, describes rockholes, sand hills and the roads between.

The shapes are influenced by the landscapes around Karen which draw colour from both the desert tones and various brighter tones as seen on the lacquer bangle above.

The vine style pattern raps its way around the top of the bangle representing the sand hills separated by roads. The lower half of the bangle describes the rock holes and the movement from one to another. 

This simple design aids the use of colour to define each element. The pattern is universal and can be worn amongst modern day clothing styles with ease.

Karen's work often expresses aspects of her surrounding environment. 

From her desert surroundings to her current surrounding environment of Adelaide, she draws from these influences to depict how she feels.

Week 9

Family and Country

by Damien and Yilpi Marks

Family and Country depicts the dry season of Damien's homeland in the Northern Territory. 

It illustrates aspects past down from generation to generation of the landscape and culture at the 

time of Damien's great-grandparents. 

This painting describes a community preparing for a ceremony. Women and children collecting bush potatoes (as seen with the red shapes at the top), and a man with his spear. With the dry season, the community would use controlled burnings to help rejuvenate and replenish the life of fruit. 

In preparation for the ceremony, women's body paint is presented as small star like symbols which are splatter across the painting. 

The warm colours help represent the dry season, cracks, dry creek beds and the heat of the day and the fires. The white creates contracts and shows the movement through the story.

Overall this card is very complex and detailed. It expresses a large community and their routine ritual leading towards a ceremony. Although I respect the story and representation, I find it hard to fully appreciate the story with its complex imagery. As the application of this story is in a gift card, i feel it wouldn't be appreciated as a whole as it would be if it was a painting. In a painting form, this story would be admired by those who truly understand each mark and its intension.

Week 8

In a previous post, I have looked at the Better World Arts group and what they have helped 

accomplish since they were established in 1991.

The Better World Arts group help produce a vast ranges of products which 

include stainless steel jewellery, various other styles (which will be looked at in coming posts) and gift cards, to name a few. 

Walka

By Mulykuya Ken

This card design is a snippet from Mrs Ken's original painting created during a weekly art workshop at the Better World Arts space in Port Adelaide. The title of this piece, Walka, describes any meaningful mark or pattern which could be found amongst the natural environment. These markings have a cultural and ritual significance which can be seen on the body during a traditional song, dance (inma) or a ceremony. 

This representation of Walka shows various animal footprints and markings alongs the Australian 

landscape and in particular around Mrs Ken's homeland.  

As Mrs Ken has presented, the environment is a source of inspiration. The use of colour describes the change of season with its rich wildlife inhabitance. As seen, the background fades between an orchid and a warm pink and shows the heat of the dessert sun. The use of gold and silver placed around each black mark creates movement through the card. 

Overall this card is striking with a contemporary edge and speaks to a wide audience. Although its not set for any particular theme, this card can be used for any occasion especially when given with any gift.

Week 7

Mondo Rondo Utopia Collection

The Utopia collection features the artists Minni Pwerle, Gloria Petyarr and Barbara Weir who are from the Utopia region, 240km North East of Alice Springs. As the other collection, all pieces are handmade by Mondo Rondo and have the artists name and art work name engraved on the back. 

The Utopia collection has a more contemporary feel utilising both black and white and colour.

Gloria Petyarr

Utilising both colour and black and white, Gloria has created flowing designs using a seed style shape. Each piece has a mind of its own leads you around the page and describes a particular plant that is used in bush medicine

Minnie Pwerle

Likewise, Minnie has explored both black and white and coloured pieces that showcase her unique contemporary feel with a high contrast. Both circles and lines are used also showing a 

directional downward flow. 

Barbara Weir

Using a more muted colour palette, Barbara uses lines to depict grass seed. The yellow highlights create hierarchy and the starting point which the flow moves from. 

As a whole, the collection is quite contemporary compared to the Warlukurlangu Collection. The style presented by each artists is different by works together to compliment each other within this collection.

This would have to be one of my prefered styles of Aboriginal Art as it is something that can be worn in a contemporary context and can match various styles. 

Week 6

Mondo Rondo Jewellery

Mondo Rondo is a Jewellery company that collaborates with various Indigenous artist's and communities to bring Aboriginal art into a modern context. The pieces of work are imprinted onto necklaces and earrings to and sold at various locations around Australia. Mondo Rondo feature three main collections which will be touched upon over the next few weeks.

This week I will be looking at the Warlukurlangu Collection.

The Warlukurlangu Collection is an amalgamation of Aboriginal artists that come from the Yuendemu Arts Centre, a remote community 300km North West of Alice Springs. This collection features numerous artists that have more of a traditional style of Aboriginal art. Each artist has created a design which is then imprinted onto both a necklace and earrings.

Below are some of the artists featured within this collection.

The collection features 12 Aboriginal artists, with each showcasing a different style. The colours and patterns predominately show dots and lines and when seen from a far the combination changes the depth to each design.