Gloria Tamerre Petyarre is one of the most acclaimed indigenous painters. She was born at Atnangkere, an important water soakage on the border of Utopia station, slightly less than two hundred kilometers north-east of Alice Springs. She spent her early years living in a traditional manner before settling in Utopia. Petyarre was one of the original participants in the batik program that began in 1977, and brought widespread attention to the women of the community. By the late 1980s she had begun painting with acrylics on canvas, along with her aunt, the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and her sisters, Ada, Kathleen, Nancy, Myrtle and Violet Petyarre.

After Emily Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre is probably the best-known of the Utopia artists. Ever since her first solo exhibitions in 1991, she has had a dedicated following among public and private collectors. Many of her paintings are based on the body paint designs worn by women in ceremonies, but she also has the authority to paint pictures based on a range of Dreamings, including the Mountain Devil Lizard, the yam, grass seed and emu.

It is, however, the extraordinary abstract qualities of her work that have won Petyarre admirers. Regardless of what stories lie behind a painting, her pictures often generate powerful optical effects. She places close-toned, feathery dots and dashes of paint side by side to create an impression of swirling movement. One thinks of the wind sweeping through long grass, or perhaps some great cosmic event in the heavens.

For more than ten years she has also been painting designs based on leaves or wild-flowers - motifs that do not relate directly to her Dreamings. These signature works have become very popular, and nowadays probably account for the best part of her output. 

We visited Petyarre one morning as she sat painting in the shed owned and operated by Mbantua Gallery in Alice Springs. These 'sheds' have become a fixture of the Aboriginal art business in the Northern Territory, playing host to artists who come in to town from the communities and outstations, and want to do some painting. Some of these venues are run by reputable dealers, some by self-styled entrepreneurs. They range from the most primitive facilities to sophisticated and comfortable environments. The Mbantua shed, for instance, has all mod cons, including carpet and air conditioning, and is attached the gallery's art storage and photography division.

Petyarre sits cross-legged on the floor, in front of a large canvas. There is a small heater on one side, and a cup of tea close at hand. She paints layer upon layer of tapering dots, with patient, repetitive strokes, dipping her bushes into pots of yellow, ochre and white. She dresses in clothes that have the same busy patterns as her paintings, managing to appear both dignified and rather glamorous. She seems completely unflappable.

While Petyarre is a prolific artist whose paintings are always in demand, the money she makes from sales will help support a large number of her relatives in Utopia. This is standard practice among the painters of the Central and Western deserts, and the most successful artists also seem to have the most dependents. The income from art has raised the standard of living in places such as Utopia, and the example of Petyarre and her peers has helped encourage a new generation of artists. Little by little, the motifs and themes may change, becoming more abstract or decorative, but the traditional values of the community are reinforced by the sale of paintings, and by the respect in which senior figures like Petyarre are held.

John McDonald

View the full list of artists photographed by R. Ian Lloyd