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August 15, 2008
The artists of Jirrawun Arts --- situated at Wyndham in the East Kimberley of Western Australia ---- work in the distinctive Kimberley style made famous by Rover Thomas and Queenie McKenzie: sparse, flat expanses of natural ochres and minimal dotting to form bold, imposing images of country. Paintings depicting the often violent relations between white settlers and the local peoples are common; interestingly, many of the Jirrawun artists originally worked as stockmen for white-owned stations.
It is the home for painters such as Paddy Bedford, Rusty Peters, Freddie Timms, Peggy Patrick, Goody Barrett, Phyllis Thomas and Rammey Ramsey, currently exhibiting at the Darwin Festival:
Rammey Ramsey, Warlawoon Country Waterholes, 2004
The image relates to the flat country in the area near Elgee Cliffs, south of Bedfod Downs in the East Kimberley. This was always Ramsey's family’s country. Both parents belonged there. They used to muster cattle there for the now abandoned Elgee Cliffs [cattle] Station and the artist spent a lifetime working as a stockman.
The senior Gija artists living in the Warmun community in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia--including Freddie Timms, Paddy Bedford, Rusty Peters, Phyllis Thomas and Goody Barrett - have taken control of their living conditions and artistic careers, setting up financial management systems and organising exhibitions of their work at major Australian and international museums and galleries.
The Jirrawun Arts would provide financial security and peace of mind to artists so that they could simply live to paint and the Jirrawun artists paint in a studio of innovative design at Wyndham WA.
Rammey Ramsey, untitled, ?
Jirrawun Arts enables these painters to avoid the carpet- baggers who form a large greay area in the art market providing "name" painters with quick money for slapdash work that is often of poor quality and murky provenance. They are entrenched in Alice Springs and circulate through the Kimberley and Pilbara.
Rammey Ramsey, unttitled, 2008
If the style of Jirrawwun works have their roots in the visual language of the East Kimberley made famous by Rover Thomas, Paddy Jaminji, Jack Britton etc, then contemporary Jirrawun artists are breaking out of the tradition by using colour pigments instead of the locally sourced ochre.
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The second pic is rather an interesting one. I wonder if the line on the right side represents the power line.
For the others I would defer to Mr Squiggle and say "Upside down Miss Jane"