Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri

Painted for Warlayirti Artists, Balgo, in 1990 (catalogue number 124/90)

Private Collection

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2019

Waterholes and their location in the vast expanse of the Great Sandy Desert, vital to the artist Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka and her ancestors’ survival, are calmly and confidently 

communicated in this celebratory work painted early in her public career. The setting is the artist’s home when she was young: three fruit-bearing tinnu trees are depicted, while the seven dark circles denote the water sources nestled in Napanangka's encyclopaedic portrayal of her Country. Fields of concentric shapes, ostensibly depicting sandhills, describe established areas of deep cultural significance; lines of travels denote the knowledge required to access a variety of desert food sources.