Eastern Desert Art has recently acquired the work of two local painters who paint the Dreaming “ Bush Plum of their Ancestors.
Julie Pungata and Mary Ngala Jones are talented painters who live permanently in the heart of the Bush on the Utopia Community in the Eastern Desert of the Northern Territory.
Julie Pungata, born at Ti Tree, lives with her family on Utopia. She paints from a traditional perspective, surveying her landscape with a spiritual eye. Her paintings are finely executed with a bejewelled-like appearance. The dot-like appearance of shrubs, spinifex and other flora from her country are a source of inspiration for this work.
Mary Ngala Jones was born into an artistic family. She is daughter of the painter Myrtle Petyarre and niece to Ada Bird Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, Nancy Petyarre, Kathleen Petyarre, Violet Petyarre and Jean Petyarre. Her sister is Gracie Pwerle Morton. She was born at MacDonald Downs and lives at Thelye, an outstation on Utopia. Now that her children are growing up, Mary has begun to paint and her style is unmistakably similar to that of her relatives. Her style of painting is distinctively minimalist and she uses a very delicate dotting technique. All of her paintings directly refer to this Dreaming and the associated country around Utopia in the eastern central desert of Australia.
