Ngiyu Shirley Watson, “Kunmanara Bore”, Acrylic Painting

Shirley’s real name with her Pitjantjatjara family is Ngiyu. On the back of this linen canvas her name is written as Shirley Watson, with the accession code for the Irrunytiu  arts centre as IRRNW02149. There’s a similar on-line painting for 2018. She painted her father’s country at Kumanara Bore, which is the title for this work. 

The painting is solid with a gl;orious love of colour. She may have been born around 1940 or 1945, so she would have been around 73 years old with a lot of painting experience behind her.

The edge of the canvas is as she originally worked on it, with signs of underpainting of dots under the red painted “frame”.