New Paintings from Central Desert Aboriginal Artists have arrived!

Bay Gallery Home is thrilled to share images of these new arrivals with you on this glorious sunny day. They are in our Tetbury gallery having not made it in time for Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead, which was disappointing but they are here now and they are gorgeous. Bursting with energy and colour the artworks are strangely calming. The artists have shared their ancient sacred stories and knowledge with us which we in turn are sharing with you.

Visit our Tetbury gallery - we are open seven days a week and our Cotswold town is a great place to stay.

Get in touch to make an appointment or to find out more.

CECILY NAPANANGKA MARSHALL, VAUGHAN SPRINGS DREAMING (5911/23) (122CMX122CM) £3,250.00, Acrylic on Linen

RITASHA NAMPIJINPA MARTIN, JAJIRRDI MANU JANGANPA JUKURRPA (WESTERN QUOLL & POSSUM DREAMING) - YAKURDYI, (1180/24) 107CMX61CM ,£1,500.00, Acrylic on Linen

SYLVARIA NAPURRURLA WALKER, JITILYPURU JUKURRPA (RED MALLEE FLOWER DREAMING) (2337/21) 107X76CM, £1,750.00, Acrylic on linen

PAULINE NAMPIJINPA SINGLETON, YANKIRRI JUKURRPA (EMU DREAMING) - NGARLIKIRLANGU (2604/21) 152X76CM, £2,000.00, Acrylic on Linen

LEE NANGALA GALLAGHER, YANKIRRI JUKURRPA (EMU DREAMING) - NGARLIKIRLANGU (987/23NY) 107CMX76CM, £1,500.00, Acrylic on Linen

SHANNA NAPANANGKA WILLIAMS, NAPALJARRI-WARNU JUKURRPA (SEVEN SISTERS DREAMING) (8512/23) 122CMX61CM, £1,600.00, Acrylic on Linen

OMAY NAMPIJINPA GALLAGHER, YANKIRRI JUKURRPA (EMU DREAMING) - NGARLIKIRLANGU (278/24NY) 152CMX61CM, £1,950.00, Acrylic on Linen

Be VIP at AAF on Hampstead Heath

BRENDA PUNYTJINA ARMSTRONG, KALINY-KALINYPA / ULTUKUNPA JUKURRPA - HONEY GREVILLEA DREAMING (3859/19NY) 122CM X 76CM £1,800

Bay Gallery Home is returning to Hampstead Heath for the Affordable Art Fair 8-12 May. You’ll find us on stand J6. I think it’s next to the champagne bar! So if you buy one of our beautiful paintings you can celebrate with a glass of bubbly.

We have a wonderful collection of paintings in all sizes from our Central Desert artists. If you don’t see what you want hanging on the stand we can always show you more that are stored on the stand and in the van. And our famous treasure chests are a trove of small scale beauties.

At our last show in Battersea clients asked to see our interiors collection which we hadn’t packed so this time we will bring samples of the fabrics, tiles and wallpapers. Please drop us a note via email: alexandra@baygalleryhome.com or Instagram us @baygalleryhome if there’s anything you’d like us to show you and we’ll make sure it’s on the stand for your visit.

Not long to go. The excitement in our Tetbury, Cotswolds art gallery is growing. Really looking forward to catching up with past clients and meeting new ones.

Lilly Green wallpaper from a painting by Lilly Kemarre Morton £180/roll

HAPPY CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR AND CLOSING OVER THE HOLIDAYS

Janganpa Jukurrpa , (Common Brush-Tail Possum Dreaming), Steven Jupurrurla Nelson, 122cmx91cm £2,500

Bay Gallery Home wishes you all a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Thank you for continued support through difficult times. In 2024 we will continue to work hard to bring you beautiful paintings and products from the uniquely talented Aboriginal artists of the Central Desert in Australia via our Tetbury, Cotswold art gallery. We will also have stands at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea and Hampstead Heath as well as the Spring Homes & Garden Fair, Sudeley Castle & Gardens.

While we will be closed from 14 December to 13 January you can still access the gallery if needed. Please call text or email Alexandra a day or so in advance so we can organise entry. Work will continue while we’re on holiday as we have an amazing collection of new works to upload so keep an eye on the website for first dibs on the new paintings.

Great Yorkshire Christmas Fair - 29 November - 3 December 2023

Bay Gallery Home is bringing our Aboriginal art, soft furnishings, homewares & accessories to York for the first time after years of being supported by the people of Yorkshire in our Tetbury, Cotswolds art gallery

We are excited to share the wonderful contemporary art by Central Desert Aboriginal artists, our award-winning ‘My Country’ interiors collection and the eclectic array of fine bone china and giftware we offer as the only dedicated Aboriginal art gallery in the UK.

So many unique gift ideas await visitors to Harrogate for the on Stand 4. You can use the link below to secure your free entry ticket using the code: EXHIBITOR

Ancient medicines of Aboriginal Australia

Australian Aboriginal bush medicine is believed to have played a major part in the success of living off the continent’s landscape for more than 60,000 years. Much of the flora and fauna found on the huge landmass is unique. Across Australia, Aboriginal people developed bush medicine and used it to treat headaches, colds, skin infections and rashes, prevent pregnancy and cure many other ailments. Australia’s isolation meant it wasn’t subject to the devastating illnesses that stalked Europe.

Bush medicine is a testament to the profound interconnectedness of the indigenous communities to the ancient land they call home. The traditional healers also use spiritual realignment and smoking ceremonies using  Eremophila longifolia (commonly known as the Berrigan emu bush) producing a smoke with significant antimicrobial effects when heated. Traditionally the ceremonies were to mark the birth of a baby, initiation and circumcision of boys. Deeply rooted in their rich cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs, this holistic healing practice thrived amidst the harsh and arid landscape.

Intergenerational sharing of knowledge is essential for bush medicinal practice being maintained. Traditionally this was passed on through stories and ceremonies, as well as practice. Since what Indigenous groups more commonly term the 'Invasion’ of Australia, it’s become increasingly important to document the knowledge due to the fractured communities, loss of access to sacred sites and the assault by mining companies on Aboriginal lands.

One of the ways of maintaining botanical knowledge is through art (in an earlier blog, we covered the Batik art movement which features important bush medicine and bush tucker stories). Another is Aboriginal-led initiatives like the social enterprise Bush Balms run from Purple House in Alice Springs. Purple House is an Aboriginal-owned and run charity specialising in dialysis for Aboriginals from remote desert communities. Bush medicines were brought to patients by mothers and grandmothers more than 20 years ago, with many being created by elders over the fire at the house. This practice was the genesis for Bush Balm.

When my mother was working as a nurse in Utopia (Tanami Desert 300km north east of Alice Springs) a dog bit her. My mother said a very old Aboriginal woman emerged from nowhere and slapped a gooey paste on her injured leg and muttered advice to keep it there. Outnursing the nurse, the balm healed the bite would without an infection or scarring developing.

Collaboration with bodies like the Imperial Bio Science Review, Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Curtain University aids the safe development and distribution of bush medicine-based products, while also providing business opportunities through the sale of bush medicine products, tourism and horticulture.

Little wonder mega-pharmaceutical companies now circle indigenous communities and their bush knowledge.

Now, more than ever, it feels important that Aboriginal communities across Australia protect their botanical knowledge and connection to their land.

Aboriginal bush medicines include eucalyptus leaves, Kakadu plum, witchetty grubs, desert mushrooms, and snake vine.

Fresh out of the Central Desert: more botanical beauties!

Over Summer visit Bay Gallery Home in the beautiful town of Tetbury, Cotswolds. While here you can visit the plethora of specialty shops selling art, antiques and lots of great cafes and restaurants.

AGNES PULA RUBUNTJA, AMEROO OUTSTATION (23-CC73) 91CMX91CM

£2,000.00

Acrylic on Belgian Linen

PAMMY KEMARRE FOSTER, OUT BUSH, 92CM X61CM (22-EP329)

£2,000.00

Acrylic on Belgian Linen

SUSIE NGWARREYE PETERSON, DRY COUNTRY (23-EP115) 76CMX61CM

£1,800.00

Acrylic on Linen

DENISE NGWARREYE BONNEY, DRY CREEK BED (23-CC61) 30CMX30CM

£250.00

Acrylic on linen

BENITA KEMARR WOODMAN, DURING RAIN TIME (23-CC59) 30CMX30CM

£250.00

Acrylic on Linen

In Tetbury town centre Bay Gallery Home offers a diverse collection of Aboriginal art for sale, ideal for people seeking a unique cultural aesthetic for their home. Each artwork tells a rich story, deeply rooted in Aboriginal heritage and symbology. From bold, vibrant dot paintings to intricate, botancial pieces, our collection provides a wide range of choices to suit any interior design style. The earthy colour palettes harmoniously blend with contemporary design elements, creating a captivating and balanced ambiance. There’s plenty of bright, colourful works as well if you need a pop of colour therapy in your home.

Many of our artists are accomplished award winning practitioners with long careers exhibiting all over the world. Bay Gallery Home is a great source of younger artists paintings embarking on what will be for many important careers guided by senior community elders.

If you’d like to make an appointment call Alexandra on 07776 157 066 or DM us on Instagram @baygalleryhome email: alexandra@baygalleryhome.com

Invitation to Hampstead Heath Affordable Art Fair 10-14 May 2023

In just under a month Bay Gallery Home will be exhibiting a curated collection of wonderful Central Desert Aboriginal art at the Hampstead Heath Affordable Art Fair.

This Affordable Art Fair we have our biggest artworks yet! Look out for paintings by the incredible Walter Jangala Brown and Chantelle Nampijinpa Robertson - both clearly inherited their famous relatives talent.

You’ll find us on a larger stand than usual, with more offerings than ever before. There will be a lot of gorgeous smaller works and the metal painted dogs are back. New editions include etchings from Kununurra by celebrated artists Billy Jibilloorn Duncan and Penny Archie. Bay Gallery Home really wants to expose our clients to fresh works reflecting the growth in our artists’ practice and our growth as a gallery.

Please let us know if you want to see anything in particular after taking a look at our website and we’ll make sure it is at the show. We are still busily updating the website as the paintings land from Australia, so keep an eye on it.

Please click the link below for VIP tickets.

If you would like to apply for Access All Area passes we have a limited number to give away. Please email alexandra@baygalleryhome.com for the AAA code.

We look forward to seeing you there. x

Barbara Weir - artist and advocate has passed away

Barbara Weir paintings from Bay Gallery Homes first London exhibition: My Mother’s Country, Grass Seed Dreamings

Bay Gallery Home was very sad to learn of Barbara’s passing on 3 January 2023.

Our journey with Aboriginal art began when Barbara’s son Fred Torres and my dear friend Leana visited us shortly after the birth of my daughter in 2008. During their visit it was decided I would expand my flourishing gallery business by representing the artists of Utopia in the UK.

By sheer coincidence my mother had spent two years in Utopia as a district nurse 17 years previously. On a visit to her in the Central Desert I met many members of Barbara’s extended family painting canvases on the desert sands at their outstations, long before the advent of the painting shed. My mother knew Barbara well and I had the opportunity of meeting her during the years I represented Utopia.

The first Aboriginal art exhibition I held nearly 15 years ago included many mesmerising and beautifully executed Grass Seed Dreaming’s and My Mother’s Country by Barbara. She was a versatile, passionate artist whose love for her country is reflected in each canvas she painted. Barbara was highly skilled in the use of dot work shown in her depictions of ‘My Mother’s Country’, and was ingenious in her use of colour, lines and texture as shown in ‘Grass Seed’ dreamings.

Born in 1945 Barbara’s life was full of challenges having to straddle the two cultures after being forcibly removed from her family by the Native Welfare Police. Barbara’s country was Atnwengerrp and her languages Anmatyerre and Alyawarr. Her father Jack Weir, the Irish owner of Bundy River station near Utopia had a relationship with her mother Minnie Pwerle. Both were imprisoned for their interacial relationship with Jack dying shortly after his release.

Barbara was forced to live in foster homes becoming one of the ‘Stolen Generation’ at nine having being told her family was dead - she was ostensibly told this because she continued to use her traditional languages and was moved from Alice Springs to Darwin. This was done to remove any vestiges of her Aboriginality and make her European enough to serve white families as a domestic servant.

At 18 she married Mervyn Torres and they moved to Papunya where they witnessed the genesis of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Torres later found out Barbara’s family was still alive and they were reunited. The reunion was tepid at the beginning with reintegration slow. Barbara had lost her languages and stories, however, the trauma of the removal was healed over time with Barbara relearning her culture under the guidance of family including “aunty” Gloria Petyarre.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye was a profound influence on Barbara as an adopted aunty and artist. This led to Barbara being integral to her families success as artists, including encouraging Minnie to take up the brush in her 80’s with her going on to become an internationally acclaimed artist along with many other family members.

During the 1970s Barbara became an active land rights activist. In 1985 she was elected as the first women president of the Indigenous Urapunta Council.

Barbara Weir will be sadly missed by all who knew her and everyone who has ever owned or enjoyed her artwork.

2023 begins with New Art from Tennant Creek, Australia

Bay Gallery Home wishes you a Happy New Year! Refreshed after a glorious holiday we have exciting news to share with our friends and clients for 2023. We have embarked on a collaboration with artists from Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia.

Among the artists we have are Ada Pula Beasley and Pammy Foster, both rising stars in the Aboriginal art world. Their impressionist paintings, achieved with careful brush and dot work, are breathtakingly beautiful.

Ada paints her Country, many recent works by Central Desert artists depict the devastating fires, She explains: “After the bushfires, when the rain comes and brings back all the bush flowers and bush medicine back again and make it green, this [is] why I do this painting, reminds me when we go hunting after the bush fire and see just black, then it rains and brings flowers back and the trees and the blue skies, and the snappy gum trees up the hill."

Pammy Foster takes an abstract approach to the depiction of Country. Her work captures the rhythm of the landscape with repeated motifs and engages an exaggerated palette to emphasise seasonal changes in the environment.

These and many other beautiful works from the our desert communities will be available online and at the Spring Battersea Affordable Art Fair 9-12 March. VIP codes for VIP tickets will be shared with you shortly.

Building on a Sacred Site - National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs

Mparntwe (Alice Springs) seeks to address its dwindling visiting numbers by building the National Aboriginal Art Gallery (NAAG) on Anzac Oval in the the centre of town.

This cultural initiative aims to celebrate 65,000 years of Aboriginal culture while controversially construction will be on a sacred women’s site. Doris Stuart Kngwarreye is an Arrente woman who is a senior custodian or Apmereke-Artweye for Mparntwe, a role she inherited through her father’s line when she was young. Stuart has opposed the proposed gallery site for years as the gallery’s proposed artworks will overlap the sacred sites and song lines of the traditional owners.

“If you put a building up there with stories that don’t belong there, how do you think the ancestors will feel towards that?” she said.

The prospect not only concerns the ancestors but indigenous, living artists like Western Arrarnta elder and artist Mervyn Rubuntja. "It's a women's site," he said. "You need to talk to the ladies first if they say yes or no, because it's important for every non-indigenous person to listen."

Despite consultations and recommendations that the gallery should be built in the Desert Knowledge Precinct, the Arrente women have been ridden over roughshod by the Labour MP Chansey Paech who took over the Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio for the Northern Territory in 2020. Mr Paech, an Arrernte man, said Ms Stuart and her family had been invited into the consultations "at every stage".

The NT government have been accused of traditional owner shopping for approval for the Anzac Oval site. As such, custodian families are being torn apart, particularly as some of them don’t hold authority of the land in question.

Rather ironically NAAG does not currently hold an Aboriginal art collection and will rely on the consultative powers of Arrente woman Sera Bray to obtain art for the collection for the £130m project, due to start once the design consultation process ends late in 2023. As it is a sacred women's site, this may proof difficult.

For ABC article go to:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-14/national-aboriginal-art-gallery-new-name-flagged/101433054

Doris Stuart Kngwarreye on her home country. (ABC News: Kirstie Wellauer)

Small(er) but perfectly formed paintings at Bay Gallery Home

Bay Gallery Home has curated a small(er) but perfectly formed painting gallery for your enjoyment.

Our offering starts small for those entering the market for the first time with larger pieces also available. However, we want to focus this Newsletter on the smaller works for those wanting to find an artwork for the niche spaces in your home or office on a smaller budget.

Bay Gallery Home has always recognised younger, emerging talent before they make it big. In the UK we are the perfect gallery to obtain exciting younger artists work before they are recognised nationally and internationally. By purchasing smaller artworks you can establish your first foothold in the art market at the beginning of an artists career while adorning your walls with something that gives you pleasure every day.

The ethos of our art gallery is to bring you high quality art and affordable prices. Is there space you want to fill that won’t break the bank? We have an array of colours and styles from broad strong brushstrokes to fine dot work. Visit us in our Tetbury art gallery or online www.baygalleryhome.com

New Year brings New Aboriginal artwork to Bay Gallery Home

As we enter 2022 we have been busy curating new Aboriginal paintings across a range of emerging and established artists, sizes, and styles from the Central Desert communities we represent.

Among our highlights above are larger works in subdued colour’s for lovers of lighter hues as well as three smaller paintings packing a dynamic punch with their bold colours.

Last week visitors expressed their delight at seeing the paintings “in the flesh” having discovered them online. While photographs of the paintings are beautiful its difficult to capture the texture and depth of the paintings in a photographic format. The many layers of colour applied to each artwork make them very tactile; the irregularities and (sometimes) random flicks of paint assure you that the paintings travelled all the way from the Central Australian desert bearing elements of the artists personality.

Over the course of 2022, Covid permitting, Bay Gallery Home is hoping to exhibit in various art fairs across the country. If you have any near you you’d like us to know about please let us know and we’ll endeavour to explore opportunities to exhibit our gorgeous Aboriginal art works there.

Thank you for continued support of Bay Gallery Home and the artists we represent. Hope to see you in Tetbury soon. All the best for 2022!

Light Up! Christmas Party Friday 10 December 2021

Every year Bay Gallery Home hosts a Christmas party to coincide with the Tetbury Christmas light switch on. Tetbury comes together to celebrate Christmas with a street party and many independent shops remaining open for late night gift shopping, drinks and nibbles.

This year we would love all our amazing, supportive clients, friends and Tetbury community to join us for drinks and canapes as a thank you for helping us navigate and grow during the challenges of the last year.

Thank you one and all for embracing our crazy enterprise of bringing Aboriginal art to the Cotswolds!

Party starts at Bay Gallery Home from 1800. Please ensure you have done a lateral flow test beforehand and bring your mask. The road outside is closed so you can enjoy your drink out there if you’d prefer not to be indoors.

Please RSVP where possible. Many thanks. x

'My Country' wallpapers bring Spring to your home

In the UK Spring has arrived with lambs tripping across daffodiled fields. To bring some of that beautiful outside spirit in your home our Joycie Yellow is the perfect choice. Joycie Yellow is often used to brighten bathrooms and kitchens. The many colours artist Joycie Pitjara Morton used in the original painting have translated splendidly onto the wallpaper. The oranges and greens pop depending on the light and angle its viewed at so there’s endless choices of fabric colours for blinds or other soft furnishings you can pair it with - including our own fabric collection. Or you can opt for one of our other ‘My Country’ wallpapers which are equally as endearing with their depictions of sacred outback Australian land.

Our wallpapers suit many residential and commercial projects and have been used across the world in English period homes, French chateus , and contemporary houses who’ve opted for minimalism but needing a pop of colour and design with soul.

What’s your favourite?

Stock is held in Australia so if you’re an Australian customer please be assured your ordered will be sent from there. If you contact us and you don’t get a reply please check your Spam. We always reply immediately.

Lockdown 0.3 - here we go again!

Our Ruth Red Goanna Dreaming velvet cushion on one of the amazing sofas you can find at Treacle George in Tetbury, the Cotswolds.

Sadly we have had to close our doors again but we’re still trading online and by appointment during this winter lockdown. If you follow the gallery safety protocols you can pick up any purchases safely or we can send them to you via Royal Mail, Parcelforce or DHL.

Please keep an eye for new paintings on the website and Instagram, you’ll also be able to see new developments in the ‘My Country’ collection. Our made in Britain new cushion collection is online and we’ve uploaded photos of our made to order ottomans. Fabric is available by the metre so if you want to practice your upholstery or sewing skills we have beautiful fabrics in the gallery you can’t get anywhere else.

Don’t forget Tetbury’s small independent shops during this lockdown. We’re all working so hard to bring you things of beauty you can’t get anywhere else.

We watched with horror as the queue snaked down the road from the post office as people returned lockdown purchases to Amazon. Please shop locally and/or from independents across the UK.

More paintings have arrived!

On our website you can see new paintings by some of our many talented artists. They arrived yesterday and we sold one this morning so if you have your heart set on any of the paintings please don’t delay in ordering it.

The pandemic has forced people to reassess their lives in many ways. In the gallery we are finding people wanting to cover their walls in meaningful, exuberant art after staring at them for so long during lock downs across the world. As such we’ve selected artworks which keep you captivated letting your eyes wander aimlessly across the canvas. The new selection is a mixture of bold blues, oranges, greens and reds for those that need an uplift during Zoom calls or afternoons with the children. We’ve also catered for people who need a calming influence after a stressful day with pastel blue, pinks, browns and yellows.

The Aboriginal people have suffered so much but remain incredibly resilient. It serves as an inspiration to us every day to do the best under the circumstances - we’re hoping that the artwork will serve as uplifting inspiration to you too.

Bay Gallery Home reopening Monday 15 June 2020

Joycie Pitjara Morton cotton blind. Design taken from painting by Joycie.

Bay Gallery Home is reopening Monday 15 June and we can’t wait to welcome old and new faces to our unique Aboriginal art gallery in Tetbury, the Cotswolds.

The Gallery is designed in such a way that it is easy to keep 2m social distance. If you would like to buy from us but you’re uncomfortable coming inside we’re happy to bring paintings, products from our ‘My Country’ interiors collections and our range of home wares outside.

We also have a remote payment system which works outside.

Inside the gallery we have a sink where you can wash your hands or use the gel hand sanitizer provided. Sanitizing wet wipes will also be provided. We ask that if you would like to look at something more closely you let us handle it for you. All products are sold in boxes only handled when unpacked - we do not sell the display items (unless it is the last one).

If you have recently travelled from overseas please make sure you’ve quarantined for two weeks as per our Governments guidance. Tetbury has largely been spared the ravages of Covid-19 by carefully adhering to the Public Health Guidelines. Please help us maintain the health of everyone here and our NHS staff.

Tetbury has a plethora of incredibly interesting independent shops and we are all looking forward to welcoming you to our beautiful Cotswold town.

Postage during Lockdown

Some of our orders are being delayed as our wonderful post office is operating limited hours so please bare with us while we get your orders out. DHL is operating as usual so any larger orders (including international) will be sent out within 24 hours of the order.

Post Office times in Tetbury are: 0900-1200 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only.

Painting orders dependent on size they will be sent via Royal Mail or DHL - we aim to have them sent within 24 hours.

All smaller orders from our Homeware & Accessories range will go out the day of order or nearest following postal day.

Additionally, postage prices went up as of 1 March but we will not be passing those on until circumstances improve across the board.

We have enormous gratitude for the staff at the Tetbury Post Office and DHL for continuing to operate during this difficult time.

All the best to everyone.

Bay Gallery Home

Vinterior Magazine - Art Edit

Vinterior the worldwide online vintage, antique and unique ethnic resale behemoth has published their first magazine. One of Bay Gallery Homes paintings by Flora Nakamarra Brown, Mina Mina Dreaming was curated by Louise McKinney for the magazines first Art Edit.

Louise McKinney of A-I-R, a collective of leading cultural advisers from around the world, previously lead development programmes for world class galleries: the Lisson, Serpentine and Whitechapel. To read more about Louise and see the other curated works for the Interior Art Edit please go to vinterior.co.

Rubbish Art - beware buying fake, appropriated or sweatshop Aboriginal art

Athena Nangala Granites, Yanjirlpirri or Napaljarri-Warnu Jukurrpa, (Star or Seven Sisters Dreaming)

Bay Gallery Home often gets approached with people wanting to us to sell Aboriginal paintings they’ve bought. Sadly time and time again we have to inform them that the paintings, despite having [questionable] certificates of authenticity, are from disreputable sources. Most likely they are fake or they have been acquired under sweatshop conditions. Aboriginal artists are particularly vulnerable if they are not working within the protection of an Aboriginal owned art centre.

Bay Gallery Home won’t deal on the secondary market as we only work with art centres ensuring the artists are renumerated for the paintings we sell. We’ve been wanting to write this blog for sometime as it’s evident questionable works are making it into the UK market. There are several reputable dealers in the UK so if you want an authentic work please approach any of us so we can ensure you have a work you can be confident is genuine, you can resell and that you are assured the artist will be compensated for their work.

To help you work out how to buy good Aboriginal art not “rubbish art”:

1. Look up address of gallery and thoroughly go through their website. Many of the questionable paintings or “rubbish art” we are offered are for sale with only a PO Box as the address. Sometimes the sellers name alerts me that something is up. In the 15 years I’ve been dealing Aboriginal art I’ve never come across a gallery operating under the name or the dealers name appearing on the certificates I’ve been shown. Look carefully at the photo of the artist on the certificate. Does the artist look happy? I’ve been shown certificates where the artist clearly looks distressed, others where the artists head doesn’t even appear in the picture. Sometimes the background itself is distressing - a dirty bit of carpet they’ve been sitting on for hours painting an artwork surrounded by shopping trolleys out the back of a building. These should all ring alarm bells.

2. You may be offered paintings by carpetbaggers. Carpetbaggers are people who approach artists and offer them very little money for the paintings then go on to sell them for a large profit. Often these people were professionals who came into contact with Aboriginal communities through their work. The prevalence of carpetbagging is one of the reasons art centres were established.

3. The works should be on good quality linen. If the work is painted black to the edge and the “canvas” feels plastic then it’s best avoided. Art centres do not offer paintings like that. In the past we have been offered paintings like this and could not authentic where or by who they were painted.

4. Beware of sheer bulk of work offered. If you are offered a choice of hundreds of paintings (remember the ones on a plastic feeling canvas) approach with care. Many of the Aboriginal communities are small with 30-150 artists painting at any one time. These works are then chosen by established galleries around the world.

5. If you want an Aboriginal painting try to buy one from a gallery with bricks and mortar not just an online presence. You should be able to see and feel the painting. Ask lots of questions about the stories behind the painting, the artist and the community. A legitimate Aboriginal art dealer will be able to answer all your questions as well as offer you anecdotal stories because they have been to the art centres and met the bulk of artists they represent.

6. Ochre paintings have employed “chemical fingerprints” so as to identify works produced by Aboriginal artists (ochres are mainly used by artists in the Kimberly region). The chemical is mixed with the paint so as to distinguish authentic art from imported art done by non-Aborignal artists.

7. Sometimes people comment that our paintings aren’t perfect. Funnily enough imperfections are what you are looking for in Aboriginal art. Many of our paintings will have bits of the desert in them, human or dog hair and we’ve even had one with tomato seeds! Dogs are central to Aboriginal communities and form an important part of art centre life so are often sitting close to the artists so it’s no surprise their hair makes it into some of the work. While the artists are incredibly gifted with geometric patterns if you have a work that’s gone slightly awry then it’s more likely authentic.

8. Steer clear of sites like eBay where a lot of fakes or paintings done under duress are offered.

9. Cultural appropriation is a major threat to the authentic Aboriginal art industry. Moves have been taken to curtail this, like the Australian Government initiative  ‘Fake Art Harms Culture’, but we ask you to be mindful when buying didgeridoos, boomerangs, digging sticks etc. A lot of these are imported from Indonesia and China. A shocking example of this in the UK was a fake work used in Ricky Gervais’s tv show After Life. The painting used was a copy of a painting by Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, Tingarri Dreaming (1987). Derek Productions, Gervais’s production company has since paid compensation to the artist and obtained a retrospective license to use the painting. Timna Woollard, the artist commissioned to copy the original art work has said to was among those commissioned for a UK television and prop company in 1989.