Patjarr Community is situated right beside the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve, in the middle of the desert, with one road leading in and the same road leading out.
People are here by choice and a strong determination, drifting back from Warburton Mission after the rocket testing, to be in, or nearer to their country, their sites of significance, the things that defines them as people and gives them grounding in a world of change.
Artists living in Patjarr have been given the opportunity to express themselves in introduced mediums, by means of canvas and acrylic paints, through a close association with the Warburton Arts Project over many years.
The central inspiration for paintings from the artists at Patjarr is country and the intricate network of stories, “Tjukurrpa”, that feature in the landscape, and the journeys of the “Tingarri” men and women overlying vast areas of country connecting people to the north, south, east, and west.
The local chapters in these huge stories occurred in places known intimately and owned thoroughly by the artists, who paint that country as a setting for the story that passes through it and which has left its mark upon it.
Artists often sing while they paint.
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