Lena, 2026

natural earth pigments on plywood

59.5 x 59.5 cm

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Provenance: Direct from the artist, Warmun, WA
Artwork story: Lena Nyadbi's paintings return to two forms. One is the lozenge of the jimbirla, the sharp stones of her father's Country that the Gija used for spear tips. The other is the U-shaped scale of Dayiwul, the Dreaming barramundi whose scales became the Argyle diamonds. She painted them in repeated rows, with a spare palette and strong contrasts, and rubbed charcoal into the canvas by hand as Paddy Jaminji had shown her. Her Dayiwul Lirlmim covers the roof of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. This portrait is part of Peter Thomas's series of portraits of the first-generation painters of the East Kimberley, and the rows of white lozenge forms behind her share the shape of the jimbirla.

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b. 1975

natural earth pigments on plywood

59.5 x 59.5 cm

Sold

Provenance: Direct from the artist, Warmun, WA
Artwork story: Lena Nyadbi's paintings return to two forms. One is the lozenge of the jimbirla, the sharp stones of her father's Country that the Gija used for spear tips. The other is the U-shaped scale of Dayiwul, the Dreaming barramundi whose scales became the Argyle diamonds. She painted them in repeated rows, with a spare palette and strong contrasts, and rubbed charcoal into the canvas by hand as Paddy Jaminji had shown her. Her Dayiwul Lirlmim covers the roof of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. This portrait is part of Peter Thomas's series of portraits of the first-generation painters of the East Kimberley, and the rows of white lozenge forms behind her share the shape of the jimbirla.