Materials: Acrylic paint with watercolour techniques
About the Art
Words by Brigida Steward
This landscape has informed his [Peter's] art since childhood, travelling on camels with his father. Peter has painted this scene from memory, 'holding country in mind'.
This painting depicts Heavitree Gap (Ntaripe) as he passed through North West to South from Hermannsburg 120km west of Alice Springs to Horse Shoe Bend. Peter remembers this point, The Gap, as the meeting place for Central Australians coming from all directions. They would say to one another, "I'll meet you at the Gap at noon."
Painting using watercolour is Peter's strength. It is a medium he has used since he was sitting in the creek with the likes of Clem Abbott and Keith Namatjira, so changing to acrylic paints and scaling up his work considerably to paint this mural was certainly a challenge, one that he has enjoyed immensely and successfully.
About the Artists
Peter, along with six other artists Gloria Pannka, Mervyn Rubuntja, Lenie Namatijra, Gwenda Namatjira and Reinhold Inkamala all descendants of Albert Namatjira, worked for three weeks to complete this mural. Peter was happy to give his colleagues direction and all the painters concerned made sure they enjoyed his approval of their mark making.
Painting the mural together felt good, everybody had their own feeling about the subject and each invested this feeling into the work while keeping the original flavour of Peter's airy watercolour landscape present.
It was one of the aims, says Peter, to keep the work light and airy to honour the original piece. It was hard to know when to stop. Then, one moment he said "if we keep going, it will end up looking less like a watercolour painting and become heavy so I think we can stop now."
In the words of Peter Taylor:
"I hope you like the mural and you get great enjoyment from it."
About the Project
A key direction for Batchelor Institute is to work with industry to strengthen Vocational Education and Training (VET) delivery in the Northern Territory. Batchelor Institute's collaboration with Ngurratjuta Many Hands Art Centre is a fine example of this engagement.
When the Alice Plaza commissioned a mural for the Centre, Batchelor Institute's Alice Springs Visual Art Department and Ngurratjuta Art Centre saw it as a great opportunity for art training and skill development in the workplace. Batchelor Institute's Visual Art Lecturer, Brigida Stewart, delivered training to professional landscape painters who work in the Namatjira tradition, in the arts of upscaling and translation of medium.
Through this partnership the Ngurratjuta artists have successfully translated their established art practices and rich watercolour tradition into this wonderfully generous mural.
📷Image / Photo Source: ASTC Photo Archives
📍Alice Plaza - 36 Todd Mall (indoors)