Indigenous Art of the Dreamtime

Lorna Fencer Naparrula

Lorna is very highly regarded in her home community of Lajamanu. She is described as a sweet and gentle person who, at the same time, is an aggressive and surprising painter. Surprising because of the way she paints in several different styles and radically alters those styles from time to time. Her use of colour is winning over many collectors who see her art as being fresh, dynamic and, above all representative of the best ‘contemporary’ qualities in the desert painting in the 1990’s. Although now almost eighty years of age, and despite the fact that she has been painting with western materials for the past thirteen years, this lady is regarded as a ‘newcomer’ in the top echelons of Aboriginal desert art.

39. Caterpillar Dreaming 1998, 79 x 59cm

Lorna Fencer Naparrurla was born in 1920 in Yumurrpa country, which is situated near the Granites in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. The Yarla (Yam) Dreaming track originates from this region and travels north toward Lajamanu. Today Lorna lives predominantly at Lajamanu and occasionally in Katherine. She thinks nothing of travelling the 650km between the two places. She is a senior Warlpiri (language/tribal law group) woman.

40. My Country 1998, 78 x 70cm

Whilst Lorna has ‘painted up’ all her life, meaning that she was raised as a skilled painter of decorative body designs for ceremonies, her artworks on canvas only date from 1986. Lorna’s work has become increasingly extravagant, abstract and sensual, catching the attention of art collectors from around the world and giving rise to comparisons with the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She is one of the painters who is leading the move away from traditional iconography towards a more personal and painterly mode of expression.

She applies the paint in liberal quantities to the brush before touching down on the canvas and layering the colours one upon the other. Upon completion of the work, only the most public aspects of her Dreaming are revealed to the observer, the most intimate details remain concealed. The thick impasto, which may be produced with acrylic paint, is a crucial factor in her work as are the bright, clear colours she employs. Lorna, atypical of many contemporary Aboriginal artists, uses a palette ranging from intense oranges to pinks, blues and lime greens. The painter never allows her colours to muddy and remains conscious of the force and luminosity that pure colour can bring to a painting. Nevertheless, there are examples where she will allow an underlying colour to filter through from below to enliven and activate the surface of the painting in the grand manner of the New York Abstract Expressionists. Her work would sit comfortably beside that of Willem de Kooning, Nicholas de Stael or Robert Motherwell.

41. Bush Tucker 1998, 130 x 100cm

Lorna’s Dreamings include Yarla (Yam), Wapirti and Marlujarra. These Dreamings entitle her to paint subjects such as the bush yam (sweet potato), ngalatji (little white flower), bush tomato, caterpillar, wallaby and certain mens stories including some about boomerangs. In 1997 Lorna was granted the Gold Coast City Art Award. Her artistic achievements have been recognised by her inclusion in the Murdoch Court at the National Gallery of Victoria and in the triennial 1998 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize. During 1998 the Australian Heritage Commission Collection, Canberra, acquired some of her works, Lorna’s art is also held in the Christensen Collections of Victoria; Holmes a Court Collection of Western Australia; and by a limited number of fine art galleries and private collectors around Australia and abroad.

42. Bush Potatoe 1998, 111 x 91cm

43. Bush Potato 1998, 130 x 100cm

This painting depicts the Dreamtime story of two women of the Naparrula and Nakamarra skingroups who are searching the countryside for bush potatoes. Bush Potatoes grow as roots under the ground, so the women must use their digging sticks to find them. The potatoes are collected in their coolamons (wooden carry dishes) and carried back to camp to be cooked in hot coals. The circle represents the hole that the women must dig to find the potatoes. The meandering lines represent the complex root system and branches of the bush potato plant. This dreaming took place at Duck Ponds in the Northern Territory, Australia.