The art of Ampilatwatja is strikingly different from that of other indigenous painting with a much broader colour spectrum than what is usually expected in Aboriginal art.
A new arts centre is under development as well as a new managers house.
The root of Ampilatwatja art is in the country.
The finely dotted landscapes depict each artist’s own particular country or place they have custodianship over.
Apmer (country) and all the different bush medicines and bush tucker are also reflected within each painting.
This information is mapping the country; each artist is painting her own little piece of one big map – that is why the artists themselves don’t judge a painting as good or bad.
These paintings are sacred paintings – they are not frivolously done.
Whether they are beautiful landscapes or dreaming lines and roundels’ there is no difference, because it’s all about country.
The beauty of the landscapes comes from a close association with the land, being on it, sitting down on it.
The painters’ artistic inspiration comes from nature, and their deep understanding of the earth they walk upon.
Like Cézanne painting the same mountain over and over, these artists paint their piece of country, each time revealing their love for the red earth that is their home.
All great paintings, regardless of subject matter, share a common feature.
They do more than just reproduce with paint something that exists, existed, or can be imagined.
They also express the painter’s special view about a subject.
The artists of Ampilatwatja share with you a unique view of what is special to them through their art, offering a view into one of the world’s oldest living cultures.
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