Parwella (2006) by Elizabeth Nyumi 150x100cm

Parwella (2006) by Elizabeth Nyumi — 150 x 100 cm

This powerful painting depicts the country known as Parwalla, a landscape dominated by tali (sandhills). This is the artist’s father’s Country, located far south of Balgo in the Great Sandy Desert, west of Kiwirrkurra. Parwalla is a swampy area that fills with water during the wet season, resulting in an abundance of bush foods.

Nyumi paints the rich array of bush tucker found there, including kantjilyi (bush raisin), pura (bush tomato), and minyili (seed). Women are shown as U-shapes, accompanied by their wana (digging sticks) and coolamons as they gather food. The white areas in the painting represent the spinifex grass that grows in the area and sets seed.

Elizabeth Nyumi began painting in 1987 and emerged as a leading artist in the late 1990s. Her work focuses on the abundance of bush food in her ancestral Country. Using a thick brush, she would cover the canvas in fluid, emanating lines rendered in soft, muted tones. She developed a distinctive style of thick impasto dotting, creating fields of rich texture.