Rosemary Porter b. 1982

Rosemary Porter Nampitjinpa was born in Adelaide in 1982, and grew up in the remote community of Tjukurla in Western Australia, located in the tali (sandhill) country north-west of Kaltukatjara (Docker River). Rosemary is of both the Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra language groups. She is granddaughter to respected Ngaanyatjarra elder and senior artist Tjawina Porter Nampitjinpa, who was integral to the development of Tjukurla community in the early 1980s and a contributing member of the Haasts Bluff/Kintore women’s painting project in 1994.

Rosemary's style of painting is characteristic of the Western Desert art movement. Using the traditional dot and line work, Rosemary depicts the Tjilkamata Tjukurrpa (Echidna Dreaming) story from her ancestral country. This story was taught to her by her grandmother. Horizontal and vertical stripes represent the women’s body paint designs that are applied for ceremonial purposes, and the roundels signify the burrow of the echidna. Rosemary's paintings are informed by her intimate knowledge of her country and the inextricable connection between the land and its Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), which inform all aspects of traditional life - deep and sacred knowledge, including the law and rules for social cohesion. 

Rosemary also paints Minyma Tjukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming), a story that similarly depicts women’s body paint designs, as well as the topographic view of the ceremony taking place within the landscape. Rosemary often paints in reduced colour palettes that are reminiscient of traditional ochre pigments or the warm tones of the desert landscape, but creates bold and striking patterns thorough the repetition of dot and stroke.