CROCODILE HOLE, 2005
FREDDIE TIMMS
natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on two canvas panels
diptych: 180.0 x 300.0 cm overall
each signed verso: F TIMMS; each inscribed verso: title and Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts cat. FT 2 2005.234
Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts Corporation, Kununurra
The K.D.H. Ainsworth Collection, Queensland
Freddie Timms lived as a child on Bow River and Lissadell Stations, later working as a stockman and fencer on several stations throughout the East Kimberley. He knew Rover Thomas when they both worked at Bow River and Texas Downs, and Timms danced and help paint boards for early performances of Thomas's Gurirr-Gurirr. He first began painting in the mid 1980s while living at Frog Hollow, south of Turkey Creek. Timms asked for canvases from Joel Smoker of Waringarri Arts who was supplying canvases to Jack Britten, Rover Thomas, Hector Jandany and his father-in-law, George Mung-Mung. He paints in a style that conforms to the East Kimberley archetype originated by Rover Thomas but is recognizably his own with discrete areas of colour outlined in double rows of white dots. He is notable for his careful aerial landscapes and mapping that has a feeling of familiarity that can only stem from someone who has an indisputable knowledge of this land.
His paintings evoke features of the landscape such as black soil, red ground, sandy ground, hills, creeks and water holes. They show roads, stockyards, homesteads and at a spiritual level, dreaming places. Much of the country where he worked on Lissadell, a frequent painting subject, is now under the water of Lake Argyle formed by the damming of the Ord River.
Painted across two canvases, Crocodile Hole, 2005 is a monumental depiction of his home country approximately sixty-five kilometres to the north of the Warmun Community. Now granted to family members, this site is characterised by spectacular gorge country and is a haven for wildlife, boab trees and is a permanent water site.
Timms was pivotal in establishment of Jirrawun Aboriginal Art Corporation in 1998 and, with the help of Tony Oliver, Jirrwun began to market the work of a wide group of Kimberley artists including Paddy Bedford, Hector Jandany, Rusty Peters, Churchill Cann, Goody Barrett, Phyllis Thomas, and his father's brother Timmy Timms.
Freddie Timms's work is represented in all major national and state collections in Australia, and has been shown in galleries throughout the world.
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE