Description

40.6cm x 55.9cm: acrylic on canvas

Artwork is sold unstretched

Bonnie Connelly Nakara

Bonnie was born in Illurpa, a place near Blackstone in the Ngaanyatjarra lands. When she was young her mother took her to Ernabella, later they moved to Angus Downs and then Mutitjulu.

Bonnie’s father passed away in Alintjarra. She has a lot of family in Warakurna and in Blackstone. Bonnie’s father’s country is Blackstone. Bonnie has six children, four boys and two girls.

Bonnie is now an elderly grandmother and strong cultural woman. She has been painting for many years and has passed her knowledge and skills down to her daughters, Dianne and Marlene, who now paint for Kaltukatjara Art.

Ngurra Tjalaku

Bonnie uses a dry brush to apply colour in travelling formations across the canvas, evoking the textured desert landscape where she has spent her life. Bonnie was born near Blackstone in Western Australia and has spent time travelling widely across the remote Ngaanyatjarra lands. Her paintings draw heavily on her strong cultural history, geographic knowledge, and extensive network of familial relations, which snake throughout the desert.

In this work, Bonnie paints a Tjukurpa (Dreaming) story about a man who was hunting out near Kaltukatjara, the community where she now lives. Bonnie depicts the caves that are found just through the gap in the big mountain ranges, where women go digging for honey ants.