EUBENA NAMPITJIN | NEAR JUPITER WELL IN THE GREAT SANDY DESERT, W.A.

Painted for Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Balgo, WA in 1995 (accompanied by a copy of the original documentation from Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation)

The Thomas Vroom Collection, The Netherlands

“Eubena Nampitjin’s richly evocative paintings have stimulated an efflorescence of paintings that capture the spirit of the vast deserts surrounding her homeland community of Wirrimanu (Balgo Hills), in remote Western Australia.”[i]

Nampitjin’s oeuvre focuses on the places of her childhood; she painted the spiritual power embedded in the saltpans, sandhills and rock holes of the Wati Kutjarra (Two Men) and the Nakarra Nakarra (Seven Sisters) Dreaming stories.

 “I like painting from my heart. My uncle gave me marpan (traditional healing powers) and I have that strong spirit. I like to do paintings, big ones, to keep my spirit strong.”[ii]

Working in radiant and expansive colour, the work offered here is from an important period in Nampitjin’s career when her husband Wimmitji (whom she had assisted with painting) became too frail to paint and she further developed her singular gestural and painterly style.

In her later years, Nampitjin was the most celebrated of all the artists painting at Wirrimanu (Balgo Hills) and as a custodian of women’s law and the most senior woman artist working in the area, she drew on her knowledge of ceremony, song and dance to produce large scale canvases, strongly grounded in country.

Nampitjin was awarded the Open Painting prize in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 1998.

[i] Hetti Perkins and Cara Pinchbeck, Tradition Today: Indigenous Art in Australia from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, p.16

[ii] Stephen Williamson and Samantha Togni, Eubena Nampitjin, Art and Life, Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Balgo, 2005, p.19