Biography

Warlpiri, b. c. 1959 Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa is a Warlpiri artist born at Mount Allan, near Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory. She attended school at Yuendumu and later worked as a teacher’s assistant at Mount Allan. She began painting in the early 1980s and is known for works connected to Warlpiri Country, ceremonial knowledge and inherited Dreaming stories. Dreaming & Country: Fire / Water / Women’s Ceremony Maureen paints stories connected to Warlukalongu, her father’s and grandfather’s Country. Her Dreamings include Fire, Water, Emu, Women’s Ceremony, Bush Onion, Possum, Flying Ant and Tali / Sandhills. These subjects connect natural forms, ceremony and ancestral movement across Warlpiri Country. Style and Technique Maureen’s paintings often use strong patterning, repeated dotting and textured paint application. Her Tali / Sandhills works are known for their raised, undulating surfaces, where dense marks create the physical impression of rolling sandhill country. In her Fire and Water works, repeated forms and colour shifts carry movement across the canvas. Maureen’s Palette Maureen works across a broad palette, including ochre, red, yellow, orange, white, black, blue and green. Her sandhill works often use close tonal layering, while her Fire and Water paintings tend to rely on stronger contrast and more active colour movement. For the Collector Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa has painted since the early 1980s and is recognised for her broad range of Warlpiri Dreaming subjects. Her collaborative work Seven Sisters Dreaming, made with Maggie Urban, was included in the Commitments exhibition, which toured through the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, in 1993. Her exhibition Earth + Fire + Water was presented in Western Australia in 2013.