Our latest collection Desert Floral comes to life featuring the artwork of First Nation Artist Julieanne Ngwarraye Morton. Julieanne works with the Artists of Ampilatwatja, an Aboriginal owned arts centre in the Northern Territory. For this special collection, we worked with Ampilatwatja to create a licensing agreement that generates income on every piece we have produced using this beautiful artwork. Ampilatwatja artists' are recognisably distinct, from other Aboriginal artistic communities, due to their application of fine dots and the often bright and figurative depiction of the land.

Emily chatted with Julieanne and Caroline, the Art Centre Manager, over Zoom and got to know more about her work and the Artists of Ampilatwatja.

At the time of the meeting, Julieanne had been selected for the National Capital Art Prize. Caroline highlighted it's Julieanne's time to shine by also being featured in the Art Collector July/September magazine. A celebration of her artwork is a win for the community and all Artists of Ampilatwatja.

Where do you paint? At home and out in the country, Julieanne loves what she does, keeping her stories alive by painting flowers and the landscape, mixing bright and beautiful colours and creating an individual colour palette unique to her family.

In the last twelve years, with paint becoming more readily available to the artists, Julieanne's has become more colourful. Living close to the art centre, Julieanne often has a canvas on the go, and she'll drop in for supplies. After rainfall brings delight to the canvas with flowers blooming, yellow acacia, purple desert flowers and bush medicine. The work can be time consuming as there's lots of fine detail captured. 

The artwork pictured above is Julieanne's latest work for sale on Artists of Ampilatwatja. 

Artists of Ampilatwatja artwork From Left to right, Bush Tucker by Maisie Petyarre Bundey and May Father Country by Kathleen Nanima Rambler.

Most of the artists paint Arreth, which translates to 'strong bush medicine', demonstrating a deep connection to country. A veritable source of life, the land has provided and sustained Alyawarr people for generations, as every plant and animal has a vital role to play within the ecological system. Their paintings pay homage to the significance and use of traditional bush medicine, allowing an insight into their community.