Untitled, Rover's hand prints on Country, 1993

natural earth pigments on canvas

90 x 60 cm, 95 x 64.5 cm frame

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Chapman Gallery, Manuka, ACT Private Collection, USA Cooee Art, Indigenous Fine Art, Sydney, 2022, Lot 22 Private Collection Vic
Artwork story: Rover Thomas spent a lifetime driving cattle along the Canning Stock Route and between outback Queensland and the loading yards at Wyndham. Though he was originally from Martu country he moved with his fellow stockmen to Turkey Creek after the Equal Pay decision in the early 1970s. This untitled work, featuring the artist's own handprints, carries deep symbolic weight - linking individual identity to ancestral Country through direct bodily imprint. Rover's use of ochre and natural pigments creates a surface that feels geological - more like weathered ground than painted canvas. His handprints are not marks of authorship but acts of presence: a reaffirmation of connection to the land and the spirits that dwell within it. As one of the founding figures of East Kimberley painting, Rover's work helped redefine the trajectory of Aboriginal art in Australia. For collectors, his handprints are both signature and invocation - rare, tactile, and culturally resonant.

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c.1926 – 1998

natural earth pigments on canvas

90 x 60 cm, 95 x 64.5 cm frame

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: Chapman Gallery, Manuka, ACT Private Collection, USA Cooee Art, Indigenous Fine Art, Sydney, 2022, Lot 22 Private Collection Vic
Artwork story: Rover Thomas spent a lifetime driving cattle along the Canning Stock Route and between outback Queensland and the loading yards at Wyndham. Though he was originally from Martu country he moved with his fellow stockmen to Turkey Creek after the Equal Pay decision in the early 1970s. This untitled work, featuring the artist's own handprints, carries deep symbolic weight - linking individual identity to ancestral Country through direct bodily imprint. Rover's use of ochre and natural pigments creates a surface that feels geological - more like weathered ground than painted canvas. His handprints are not marks of authorship but acts of presence: a reaffirmation of connection to the land and the spirits that dwell within it. As one of the founding figures of East Kimberley painting, Rover's work helped redefine the trajectory of Aboriginal art in Australia. For collectors, his handprints are both signature and invocation - rare, tactile, and culturally resonant.