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EILEEN NAPALTJARRI (born 1956)
Acrylic on Belgian linen
122 x 122 cm

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole and soakage water site
of Tjiturrulpa, situated in rocky hills west of the Kintore Community. A group of
men and women travelled to this site to gather material for the production of
various tools used in everyday life. The lines in the painting depict the lengths of
wood that are yet to be fashioned into a variety of tools including kulata (spears),
wana (nulla nulla), kiritji (shield) and kali (boomerang). While at Tjiturrulpa the
group also gathered a variety of bush foods including pitjara (desert yam), the
edible tuber of the shrub Ipomoea costata, pura (bush tomato) from the shrub
solanum chippendalei and kampurarrpa (desert raisin) from the small shrub
Solanum centrale.

PROVENANCE
Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd., Alice Springs, painted at Kintore 2005,
Certificate number EN0511134

Eileen was born in Haasts Bluff in December 1956. Her father Charlie Tararu
Tjungurrayi was one of the founding members of Papunya Tula Artists, and her
mother Tatali Nangala was also a very successful artist with the company from
1996 until her death in 1999. Eileen grew up in Haasts Bluff and later moved to
Kintore with her family when it was first established. The main site Eileen refers to
in her painting is Tjiturrulnga, which is slightly west of Kintore and the birthplace
of her father. She often sat beside both of her parents as they worked and although
doing her first painting in 1996, Eileen didn’t start painting regularly until 1999.

REPRESENTED
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Artbank Collection