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.