Aboriginal Painting

When we were in Alice Springs we had a day to play around town before our flight to Port Douglas. We went into many stores searching for that perfect souvenir. We wanted to find something that would be very special to us and remind us of the wonderful time we spent in the Outback. It was really hot that day and to take a break from the heat and attacking flies, we stepped into Gallery Kukuwarri. Little did we know how much time we were going to spend in the gallery. We were poking around the different paintings, attemping to interpret them when the shop owner, Caroline, offered to tell us about any painting in the store, as she knew the artists personally. In short, the gallery works as a co-op and provides transportation, food, art supplies, and shelter for aboriginal artist to come to Alice Springs and work.

We were immediately attracted to two different, more contemporary styles and finally picked our favorite piece. This painting is by Jeannie Petyarre who was born in Central Australia but her work is famous around the world. She is part of a family of many famous aboriginal artists.

The painting is the Yam Leaf. The desert yam (yala) is one of the staple foods in Central Australia. In this painting Jeannie uses the colors to represent the changes through the seasons. Caroline, also provided us with four photos of Jeannie painting our painting. We feel that those photos make the painting even more special and "one of a kind".