Body Paint, 2008

synthetic polymer paint on linen

115.5 x 203 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Commissioned directly from the artist, NT
Exhibited: Ochres to Dust, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, June 2009
Artwork story: As a younger women, Abie Loy had to be be given the right to paint certain aspects of her Dreaming by her female elders. She is part of a grand artistic lineage. Her grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre, is one of Aboriginal Australia’s most celebrated artists. Her aunt is renowned painter Gloria Petyarre. Until she reached 30 years of age her repertoire was restricted to certain aspects of the Bush Hen Dreaming. Later she was allowed to paint the story of the Bush Leaf, which grows in a swamp near sandhills in her grandfather’s country. They are often referred to as Bush Medicine Leaves due to their wonderful curative properties. They are used for a range of illnesses including colds, headaches, and sores. In her more recent paintings she depicts the marks that she and her female relatives apply to their bodies for important increase ceremonies associated with fertility and cultural maintenance. These often appear as a web of interwoven lines to create an hypnotic field. This evokes the feeling of writhing bodies as they dance across the desert sands or by firelight.

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b. 1972

synthetic polymer paint on linen

115.5 x 203 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Commissioned directly from the artist, NT
Exhibited: Ochres to Dust, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, June 2009
Artwork story: As a younger women, Abie Loy had to be be given the right to paint certain aspects of her Dreaming by her female elders. She is part of a grand artistic lineage. Her grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre, is one of Aboriginal Australia’s most celebrated artists. Her aunt is renowned painter Gloria Petyarre. Until she reached 30 years of age her repertoire was restricted to certain aspects of the Bush Hen Dreaming. Later she was allowed to paint the story of the Bush Leaf, which grows in a swamp near sandhills in her grandfather’s country. They are often referred to as Bush Medicine Leaves due to their wonderful curative properties. They are used for a range of illnesses including colds, headaches, and sores. In her more recent paintings she depicts the marks that she and her female relatives apply to their bodies for important increase ceremonies associated with fertility and cultural maintenance. These often appear as a web of interwoven lines to create an hypnotic field. This evokes the feeling of writhing bodies as they dance across the desert sands or by firelight.