Water Dreaming by Queenie Nungarrayi
| Artist: | Queenie Nungarrayi |
| Title: | Water Dreaming |
| Medium: | Acrylic on linen |
| Size: | 30 X 30cm |
| Code: | 0392 |
Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart paints for the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation located at the Yuendumu community 300km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Established in 1985, Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation is a fully Aboriginal owned and governed art centre with over 600 members. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of all art works go directly back to the artists and their community projects.
The art centre is famous for its gloriously colourful acrylic paintings with many of its members work collectable having been featured in hundreds of exhibitions both in Australia and around the world .The art centre is both a stronghold of traditional Warlpiri culture and an essential part of Yuendumu's community life.
In the usually dry creek beds are water soakages or naturally occurring wells. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain unleashing a giant storm. It travelled across the country with the lightning striking the land.
This storm met up with another storm from Wapurtali, to the west, was picked up by a 'kirrkarlan' (brown falcon ) and carried further west until it dropped the storm at Purlungyanu, where it created a giant soakage. At Puyurru the bird dug up a giant snake, 'warnayarra' (the 'rainbow serpent') and the snake carried water to create the large lake, Jillyiumpa, close to an outstation in this country.
In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. In many paintings of this Dreaming curved and straight lines represent the 'ngawarra' (flood waters) running through the landscape. Motifs frequently used to depict this story include small circles representing 'mulju' (water soakages) and short bars depicting 'mangkurdu' (clouds)
Digital Finery.