Description
Born in Derby in 1980, Lloyd Kwilla is the son of Billy Thomas (Karnta Karnta), painter, medicine man and senior Lawman from the Great Sandy Desert. Kwilla spent most of his childhood at Wangkatjungka community on Christmas Creek station, where he acquired a love of the landscape that surrounded him, and an intimate knowledge of its secrets.
Using only the richly coloured ochres gathered from country, he boldly applies the hand-ground pigments to canvas in lush swathes, creating work of dramatic intensity. Art lovers have been mesmerised by his mellifluous manipulation of warm colour and dazzling white, layered to depict aerial perspectives of the Jumu (waterholes) and Tali (sand hills) of the Great Sandy Desert.
His works share the sensual richness of Thomasʼs thickly applied ochres, yet possess his own highly distinctive style.
Having spent his whole life in this country, Kwilla knows both its grandeur and intricacies intimately and portrays these with increasing surety.