Kweyetwemp (Kathleen) Petyarre (c.1940 - 2018)

MY COUNTRY – BUSH SEEDS (AFTER SANDSTORM), 2003

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

76.0 x 76.0 cm

bears inscription verso: artist’s name, Gallerie Australis cat. GAKP0303375 and Alcaston Gallery cat. AK9565

Gallerie Australis, Adelaide
Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

Iylenty – Mosquito Bore: Recent paintings by Kathleen Petyarre, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 28 March 2003

This painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, which states in part:

‘My Country- Bush Seeds (After Sandstorm) represents an aerial view composition of Kathleen Petyarre’s sacred Dreaming site of the Mountain Devil Lizard in the vicinity of Mosquito Bore on Utopia Station in the eastern desert of central Australia. It is here at the site of Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming that the men and women of the eastern Anmatyerre language conduct important secret and sacred initiation ceremonies.

This Dreaming site is situated in the artist’s father’s country and the general locality is identified by a group of sand-hills that rise majestically from the desert floor represented in this painting by the parallel lines. The painting portrays the area scattered with seeds, summer bush flowers and spinifex grasses. The sand-hills represent a sacred Women’s Dreaming site associated with the green pea (antweth). The seeds (ntang) depicted throughout the painting are of the green pea (antweth) that are an important food source for the “traditional healer” (ngangkar), and the Mountain Devil Lizard (Arnkerrth).’