A Look At Life In Australia
By: Phoenix Arrien
The two artists-in-residence at the Mulgara Gallery near Uluru in Central Australia continue to talk about their passion for Australian desert art.
Liz and Helga have made extended forays into the desert, leaving the comforts of the resort behind. “We learn about bush tucker and use the coloured ochre for painting. Some places we are not allowed to sketch or take photos, other times we are sketching in 41 Celsius degree heat - only mad dogs and Englishwomen,” laughs Liz.
Liz is no stranger to extreme environments. She accompanied a 1993 Oxford Mabeta-Moliwe expedition to Cameroon in central Africa, where she spent most of the time in the rainforest. “Travelling to the third wettest country in the world - in the wet season - was a muddy and difficult challenge. I camped in the rainforest with five Oxford university students who collected the plants, which I then painted. This expedition finally ensured that this unique area became a reserve and ended the planting of rubber and cocoa plantations. From this I held a solo exhibition at The Royal Geographical Society in London.”
It was not her first expedition. Two years earlier Liz had travelled through Guyana in South America, painting the forests and winning a medal at the Royal Horticultural Society in London.
Helga’s strong bold colours emerged early in her career through contact with modern European art. Influenced by archaeology and prehistory, she incorporates the use of decoration from many different cultures. She also still uses traditional Batik techniques occasionally and sometimes switches mediums to cotton or linen.
In 1987, Helga spent a life-changing three months with Aboriginal women in Utopia near Alice Springs sharing her batik knowledge under the shade of Mulga bush or by open fires in the desert sands. “I feel I learned more than I taught. I didn’t have to teach the women anything, they are so talented, so I really just taught them techniques.”
“Their whole outlook on life taught me that nothing, not even time, matters very much, only the rhythm of nature. The desert is so visually beautiful that at times I would sit for hours by a fire and feel like a tiny pin in the universe.”
These two not-so-tiny pins in the universe of art are bringing the brilliant warm colours and unique animals and plants of our central desert onto canvas and cloth.
