Margaret Ngwarraye Long, View of Country, Acrylic on Linen 91x76cm (available from Bay Gallery Home)
Next week we're off to the third Sotheby's Aboriginal art auction where they'll be offering artefacts and art from the 18th century to the present. Master artists from central desert communities on sale including abstract expressionist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, most famous for her record breaking 'Earth's Creation', Janangoo Butcher Cherel, Warlimpirringa Tjapaltjarri and the Prince of Wales (Midpul).
The auctions have had mixed results with some records being reached but works like those of Warlimpirringa Tjapaltjarri 'Tingari Cycle'[s] not meeting expectations. Whereas Michael Nelson Jagamara’s iconic Five Stories, 1984, sold for £401,000 far above its estimate in September 2016.
Naturally the prices for these works far exceed what you would find at Bay Gallery Home. It's our desire to bring beautiful, quality Aboriginal artworks to the UK with prices accessible to the many not the few.
Bay Gallery Home is working hard on creating 'Songlines' our first collection of fabrics based on paintings by artists we proudly represent. We have developed the world's first Aboriginal velvets available in three colours with slightly differing depictions of the Goanna Dreaming (Warnu Jukurrpa) - essentially a love story set in the Central Desert of Australia. In keeping with our 'design with origin' ethos we have been faithful to the original artwork in the design work thereby protecting the Dreamtime story and the intent of the artist. Keep an eye on the website over the next month or so as beautiful tableware, blinds and cushions will be amongst our first offerings.
We have recently built a Testimonial page under our About section on the website. If you have bought from us and would like to give us some feedback please email us at alexandra@baygalleryhome.com and we will add your comments to our site.
We send products all over the world ensuring they are all the best quality and safely packaged and as such we've never had anything returned, which we're very proud of.
If you intend to buy from us but are mulling over which wonderful Bay Gallery Home item to buy please keep our Testimonial page in mind should you go ahead with purchasing from us.
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
Over December we have many beautiful gift ideas for you (we should all treat ourselves to a guilty pleasure at Christmas time) and your loved ones including our stock of fabulous paintings and our new home and giftware items. Keep an eye on our website for new products as it will be updated over the next week. On December 7 we will be open late for the Tetbury, Gloucestershire Christmas light party. As the main event is on our doorstop we're the perfect place to party while you shop. We'll be keeping things merry by serving wine, beer and cheeses.
On December 18 we will be holding another event as part of the Tetbury Edit collective - we'll be sharing more on that later.
Our last day of trading in the gallery is Saturday 23 December until 2 January. We can honour any websales over that period but please take into account post office opening times.
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
Our wonderful My Country ceramic wall tiles have been reduced as a special Christmas gift to our clients. Please get in touch if you'd like to order at £20 off per tile over the Christmas period. Or you can order online at www.baygalleryhome.com.
Our innovative Bush Onion 2 tile sequence lets you create your own artwork: perfect for bathrooms, kitchens, pools and summer houses.
Bay Gallery Home's award winning wallpaper is now on Houzz the home of interior design, decorating, renovating and building inspiration. Houzz discovered our wallpapers at Surface Design in February and we're delighted their intrigue lead to asking us to being on their platform giving our wallpapers the chance of being discovered on both sides of the pond.
We have taken original artworks and translated them in coated non-woven wallpapers (made in the UK) producing an additional income stream for our artists and their art centres.
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
Papunya Tula is the legendary site where the contemporary Aboriginal art movement bloomed becoming famous for its Western Desert dot art.
Amongst the different displaced Western Desert people's brought to Papunya Tula (Tula meaning small hill where a Honey ant dreaming sits) were Tommy Watson, Clifford Possum and Ningura Napurrula, each of whom went on to become wildly successful international artists.
The original company now operates from Alice Springs but we paid a visit to the existing art centre and found some of the sacred iconography depicted in the early works honoured while developing new interpretations of their ancient Dreamtime stories.
We had to keep a respectful distance while photographing the artists. Close up the paintings were breathtaking. Below is the landscape around the art centre.
As part of our expanding body beautiful and giftware range we now have scented goats milk and shea butter body bars. The designs on each part is from an established Aboriginal artists original painting depicting the Dreamtime.
Royalties from the sale of the body bars go to the artists and their community.
Visit our online store under Interiors or visit us in the gallery.
The MacDonnell Ranges run 664km across the Northern Territory, Australia through the Aboriginal countries and communities we represent. The Ranges are integral to their life and Dreamtime stories.
The Aboriginals (the Arrernte mob) believe three giant caterpillars: Yeperenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye created the stunning ranges after emerging from of an escarpment in Mparntwe or Alice Springs. Rock art exists at Emily Gap near Alice Springs which tells the story of the caterpillars emergence and bitter fight with the Irlperenye or giant stink bug which killed the caterpillars off.
Caterpillar remains made rock formations and gaps in the ranges. Surviving Yeperenye caterpillars made the rivers and the trees and in some Aboriginal Dreamtime stories the Caterpillar dreaming resides underneath the eucalyptus trees.
The McDonnell Ranges and the flora living on them is often depicted in the Aboriginal artwork and wallpapers we sell. The Country where they sit is the embodiment of the Aboriginal people who have been custodians of the land for at least 40,000 years.
The MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs
My Grandmother's Country by Denise Ngwarraye Bonney 107x51cm available online or in the gallery.
Alma Nungarrayi Granites silk scarf with beautiful gift box £60
Bay Gallery Home has exciting new products we've added to our homeware and gift range including scarfs, hand moisturisers and new editions to our stunning, colourful fine bone china range.
We are situated in Tetbury, the Cotswolds. Tetbury is an ancient royal town with many beautiful independent shops. Prince Charles lives down the road so you may bump into royalty! We are also very close to Bath and Bristol. If you're coming from London you come off the M4 at Junction 17.
If you can't make it the Bay Gallery Home in Tetbury you can always make your purchases online.
Two of our beautiful Aboriginal paintings featured in the May edition of Period Living.
Please get in touch if you would like advice on Aboriginal paintings to suit the colour scheme and style for any room in your house. As you can see the Aboriginal paintings blend well in contemporary interiors within old Cotswold cottages bringing an ancient culture into your home.
Ngalypi Jukurrpa Yanjirlpiri, Snake Vine Dreaming, by Geraldine Napangardi Granites
Our Art gallery seeks to showcase the versatility of the contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists, whose brilliant and diverse work is rooted both in the very real modern-day challenges of their culture & their rich heritage. One of these artists is Geraldine Napangardi Granites, who brings her own dynamic, modern painterly interpretation to a traditional subject matter : the Snake Vine Dreaming, or Ngalyipi Jukurrpa.
The Snake Vine Dreaming Geraldine paints is associated with a specific country in the Australian Central Desert: Yanjirlpiri, or ‘star’ (known as Mt. Nicker), lying to the west of Yuendumu. In Aboriginal culture, Dreamings have specific ‘kirda’ (owners), and in the kirda of this Dreaming are the Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men & Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. Geraldine is one such Napaljarri/Nungarrayi artist, the daughter of the celebrated artist Alma Nungarrayi Granites and granddaughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (dec) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (Dec): two of Warlukurlangu Artists Artists Aboriginal Corporation founding artists. Born & bred in Yuendumu, she lives locally with her four children and has developed her artistry by observing her grandfather’s art and that of Judy Napangardi Watson, a Warlpiri artist at the forefront of a move towards more abstract rendering of Dreaming stories.
In Snake Vine Dreaming traditional iconography, sinuous lines represent the Ngalyipi (snake vine), and straight lines represent the witi (ceremonial poles) and karlangu (digging sticks). Geraldine's painting pools from this tradition, whilst giving us a visual representation of how intricately interwoven this plant is in the daily physical & spiritual life of its people, and the profoundly interconnected relationship of the Aboriginal people to Country.
The snake vine, or Ngalyipi [Tinospora smilacina]) is found in the trees and shrubs of sandy spinifex plains and sandhills, this green creeper has many uses in daily life and is of great ceremonial importance. The vine is made up into as a shoulder strap to carry parraja (coolamons) and ngami (water carriers), or exploited for its medicinal uses: as tourniquets, and its leaves and vines are used as bandages for wounds. The Warlpiri people sometimes chew the leaves to treat severe colds, or pound the stems into poultices to cure headaches.
The importance of Yanjirlpiri cannot be overemphasized, as the sons and grandsons of Japaljarri and Jungarrayi men are brought here from as far away as Pitjantjatjara country (to the south), and from Lajamanu (to the north) to be initiated. This witi ceremony is performed at night under the stars, during which Napaljarri and Nungarrayi women will dance but then look away and block their ears when it is time for the men dance. In men’s initiations, Ngalyipi is used to tie the witi (ceremonial poles) to the shins of the dancing initiates, and to tie yukurruyukurru (dancing boards) to dancers’ bodies.
You are always welcome to pay a visit to our Art gallery in Tetbury, Gloucestershire or to browse through its digital counterpart in the ART section of this website.
We regularly post blogs on the provenance of our artwork. If you are interested in learning more about Dreamings, do have a read of our blog The Dream before the Art.
Detail from a painting we will be bringing back to Bay Gallery Home's Gallery, a fine example of the ever-evolving work of contemporary Australian Aboriginal Artists.
On the road to Uluru, after being Fool-uru by Mount Conner...
Here's a detail from Australian Aboriginal Street Art in Papunya, by Candy - a dynamic work of Art that feels full of expression and relevance.
Mount Conner, also called 'Fool-uru' by locals for so often being mistaken for Uluru..
Some of the rich stylistic variety of contemporary Australian Aboriginal artists, each incarnating the Artist's experience and connection with Country, their land and identity heritage.
Bay Gallery Home's My Country Interior wallpapers, ceramic wall tiles & rugs are a very first in the history of interior design, bringing this beautifully versatile, intricate & joyful aesthetic into interior spaces and decors.
The venerable Artist behind our wallpaper: Lilly Kemarre Morton, proudly holding one of our My Country interiors brochure.
As we continue on our Art - sourcing trip in Australia we have had the opportunity to meet up with the artists involved in our inaugural Interiors collection and share with them the fruits of this collaboration, and its fantastic reception – namely our WIN Award.
It is one of the most rewarding aspects of this enterprise.
My Country GREEN wallpaper in its full-scale splendour, bringing Art & a touch of colour into interior space.
Our Australian Aboriginal wallpapers bring original Art into your interior spaces in a whole new way.
The inspiration for My Country PINK starts with the Central Desert land – its red dusty earth and sun-burnt grasses, and resplendent amongst it all the ghostly white of the Ghostgum tree with its beautiful gleaming bark & sculptural presence. Observing its solitary presence in this arid landscape, it is not hard to see why artist Ngwarraye paints it so distinctively, and why it is so engaging as a recurring pictorial motif in our My Country PINK wallpaper.
In our design process, we take every pains to produce excellent wallpapers, taking account of scale and pattern repeats and colour dynamics so that in the translation between original painting & interior design product we keep the spirit of the artwork alive and present you with exquisitely beautiful products that will bring character & joy to your interior spaces.
Alana Ngwarraye, the wonderful artist behind the original artwork forMy Country PINK.
“I feel with my body. Feeling all these trees, all this country. When this blow you can feel it. Same for country... you feel it, you can look, but feeling... that make you.”
– Big Bill Neidjie, Gagudju Elder, Kakadu.
The origins of our art gallery, and now our art-driven interiors collection, is a long-standing personal and professional connection with Central Desert artists. Theirs is an arid land with extensive dry seasons, which is the birthplace of what is sometimes called 'Aboriginal desert painting,' at the forefront of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement.
"The chief function of colour should be to serve expression as well as possible."
Henri Matisse, from "Notes of a Painter"
Within the indigenous Australian cultures and traditions, the artist holds a sacred individual freedom to engage with their own Dreamtime and connection with country, to express a facet of life through a personal choice of brushstroke and form and colour – all the while anchored within the inherited horizon of a collective dream. The use of colours in the contemporary aboriginal art paintings reflect not only the Australian landscape but the world of their imagination, which encompasses past, present and future.
Alice Springs lies at the heart of this region, between the dramatic MacDonnell Ranges and the Todd River. It has historically been a place "crucial to the development of art and as a meeting place, place of exchange and part-time residence for people from the hundreds of Aboriginal communities throughout the central, northern, southern and western regions."* The resilient spirit of its communities, the role they play in political & cultural movements remains very much alive, notably with the iconic annual Desert Mob Art fair.
Throughout, the work of the indigenous artists we represent is a reflection of their personal engagement with a historical and deep spiritual affinity to the land, which they tell and re-tell through art to old and new audiences, layering creation myth upon botanical record, wisdom upon experience, colour upon colour.
Intrepid Alexandra on her current sourcing trip, criss-crossing the Australian Central Desert...
