Acrylic on canvas

“Hills, they go like this. Soakage (centre). Bush flowers. My Mother’s Country. When the cloud came out.”

Susie Ngwarreye Peterson is well-known for her richly detailed portrayals of the landscape around Wutunugurra. Her use of elegant brush strokes and refined dotting bring the details of the country to life; visitors to the region frequently comment on how well her paintings capture the essence of the scenery there.

From very early in her career, Susie's precision and natural artistry can be seen in the fine details of the foliage filling her landscapes and the subtle shifts of colour in the nets of dot work which cover the surface of her works.

Over time, Susie's visual language has come to have a profound influence on the Epenarra artists, where a number of notable artists have developed a practice concerned primarily with landscape painting. Susies influence can be seen in paying particular interest to the bush flowers and medicines which are scattered across the Country.

Susie was born in Wutunugurra (Epenarra) in 1965 and still resides there today. She began painting and participating in silk dyeing workshops in the early 2000s, during the first sporadic visits from outreach programs which brought art supplies to Wutunugurra. It was not until 2012 that a regular outreach program was established for the community and Susie began to paint consistently; she has remained dedicated to her creative practice ever since.

Susie’s work is highly sought after by individuals and organisations alike and is featured in a number of notable private and public collections across Australia. Most notably her work was selected to feature as the branding for the 10-year Barkly Regional Deal, her visual language has thus become synonymous with the Barkly region itself.