Our Home in Colour – New paintings from Tjarlirli Art

A striking palette and loose, uninhibited marks flavour these new works from Tjarlirli Art in the Western Desert.

Senior artist Nyarrapyi Giles, reveals a revived vigour and dynamism in her work. Drawing on her Warmurrungu story of the ceremonial ochre pits and emu spirit of her birthplace, these new works explode with colour and vitality as dots overlay each other moving as lines, circling, twirling and radiating as does the work itself, the essence of her Tjukurrpa.
The Tjarlirli artists have new additions to their palette – variations of aqua, turquoise and mauve – boldly paired with bright reds, yellows and blacks, applied with translucent whites, stippled over backgrounds, merging with adjacent colour and giving a softness to the tonal range of these bright primaries. It is this combination of palette and marks that add a bold and commanding presence to the works from Nyarrapyi Giles, Valmayi Nampitjinpa, Bob Gibson, Bell Waynatjura and Katjarra Butler.
A comparatively subdued or traditional, but equally dynamic approach, can be seen in the works of Annie Farmer, Esther Giles and Jimmy Nukati, who takes us on a journey to the rockhole, the Purrungu (python story) and the Wati Tjukurrpa.