'My Country' - Blue wallpaper depicting Kangaroo and Pigweed, found all over the Central Desert looking beautiful with chinaware designs by the world renowned artist Murdie Nampijinpa who paints Two Dogs Dreaming. Murdie is one of the elders sometimes known as the "first contact" group who lived a nomadic traditional lifestyle with their families before the "white fella" made contact. This generation performed ceremonies that, in some cases, are no longer performed but the Dreamtime stories are still told so subsequent generations can maintain their language and connection to the land - their Country.
Original artwork by Murdie is available from www.baygalleryhome.com. These paintings were selected on our last visit to the outback. There's a rawness, depth and spirit to them that speaks to you from thousands of years ago.
Sabrina is a young Aboriginal Central Desert artist related to the famous colour field abstractionist Shorty Jangala Robertson; like Shorty she paints Ngapa Jukurrpa (Pirlinyarnu) inheriting it from her father and grandfather who in turn learnt it from generations across millennia. Her mother is the world renowned artist Dorothy Napangardi (recently featured in the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy). Mount Farewell (Pirlinyarnu) is where Sabrina's Dreaming sits in her traditional lands are. She has chosen to depict the sacred Dreamtime story, in a way unique to her, where water appears to travel across the canvas with small water soakages encased in the rain drops and native plants and animals dot the land.
In 2014 her work was selected for 'Same Country Same Jukurrpa' at the Australian Museum. Sabrina's painting was shown alongside hugely important artists of the desert community she comes from including Judy Napangardi Watson, Alma Nungarrayi Granites and Otto Jungarrayi Sims. The exhibition followed on from the world's first Aboriginal women only exhibition held at the Museum in 1992 entitled 'Woman Artists'. The new exhibitions aim was to show the development in artistic styles amongst the artists as they moved away from traditional circular dot painting to establish their unique styles as artists whilst sharing their ancestors stories.
You can by the painting in the gallery or online at www.baygalleryhome.com
Ngapa Jukurrpa Pirlinyarnu, Sabrina Nangala Robertson, Acrylic on linen 30x30cm
To see our new artwork please go to the online Art shop. The paintings can be bought online or in our Tetbury, Cotswolds gallery. We have some really fantastic new paintings by established and emerging artists; Bay Gallery Home is particularly excited about Steven Jupurrurla Nelson's flourishing career - his paintings exude the energy of Jackson Pollock, the expansive work of Flora Nakamarra Brown and the beautifully detailed Seven Sister's Dreaming paintings Justinna Napaljarri Sims is producing.
Above: Flora Nakamarra Brown, Mina Mina Dreaming 91cmx91cm Acrylic on linen
In the eclectic Tile Trader (Stroud) you can now find our award winning 'My Country' Aboriginal ceramic wall tiles as seen in World of Interiors. Tile Trader supplies a large range of tiles to trade and the public.
The 'My Country' tiles are part of our 'My Country' interiors collection. They depict Aboriginal Dreamtime stories from the Central Desert of Australia the origins of which go back at least 40,000 years.
Each tile encapsulates an ancient culture whilst providing their Aboriginal community with additional revenues as money from each sale goes back to the artist and art centre. They'll give your space spirit and warmth.
Bush Onion 1 from the 'My Country' Aboriginal ceramic tile range
When we were young my parents flew a small aircraft around the Australian outback. These were the days where you could land next to Uluru and crawl all over it allowing you to experience its awesome spiritual power. Another sacred site we clambered all over was Kings Canyon. The worlds largest monolith and one its most ancient canyons were formed at the same time the first life forms developed on earth - around 600 million years ago.
Kings Canyon, covered with a plethora of fossil imprints was one of the most emotionally powerful places we'd ever encountered. This ancient canyon reminded us how insignificant we are in the big scheme of things (although 35 years on we have the power to destroy it all - after a five year fight in June this year the traditional owners learnt the mining threat, including fracking had finally been nullified).
While exploring Kings Canyon we came across this watering hole spending a significant part of the day enjoying its cool waters. As Watarrka National Park, where Kings Canyon sits, has been given back to its traditional owners you can no longer swim in it. It's now identified as a sacred men's site. We felt slightly heartbroken we couldn't share the same experience of swimming in it with our children. Much of what we accessed all those years ago is no longer open to us in the way it was. It gave us the slightest insight into what it must have been like to to torn from your land unable to share it's beauty and spirit with younger generations.
Rock hole found in the Garden of Eden, Kings Canyon, Australia
Margaret Kemarre Ross, Bush Flowers & Medicine Plants.
"We look for these plants in rocky country, we can find a little purple plum that we use to clean the kidneys and sometimes for flu. The yellow flowers are used for scabies, we boil them in water and wash our skin with it. The pink flowers we use for when we have sore eyes, we mix the flowers with water and the colour changes to a light green."
The Australian Aboriginal people are the one of the oldest continuous populations on earth, and their visual language is considered one of the world’s oldest Art forms, spanning over 50,000 years. The connection to 'country' is essential. Their tribal Dreamings, creation and mapping myths, rituals and sacred topography inspire bold, beautiful abstract paintings featuring the landscape, plants and animals of Australia's central desert. The Aboriginals see no difference between themselves, the sky, the land and the animals they share it with. All are one and the same.
"Our art is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land."
My Countryreferences the Australian Aboriginal philosophy and creative process, whereby all of creation is in relationship, at one with the land.
In our pioneering translations of our artists' artwork into interiors ranges : wallpapers, tiles, rugs, we bring something of the character of Australia's landscapes into your homes.
The artwork we represent stands in the tradition of a sophisticated visual language, composed of layers of regular irregularities of colour, geometry, repetition and scale dynamics.
The particular provenance and symbols of this art – mapping myths, rituals and sacred topography – results in a compelling, versatile aesthetic with a most subtle compositional depth of field. It imbues spaces with wider horizons of the imagination.
