Gloria Doolan

Gloria Doolan was born in Alice Springs in Central Australia. As a young infant and child her family moved around lot following her parents work commitments. When she was three years old her family relocated to Mount Isa in Queensland. It wasn’t until she was fifteen that her family returned to the Northern Territory and Alice Springs.

Upon their return Gloria and her parents moved to Santa Teresa which is an Aboriginal community approximately an hour out of Alice Springs, it was once a catholic mission. Gloria is adamant that this is where her artistic flare began and she was able to show her true side of being an artist. Gloria remembers “I started painting banners for the church at Santa Teresa for special feast days. Then the Keringke Art Centre was started. We did screen painting, silk painting and lino printing on t-shirts. That’s when I first started painting. I remember when I first saw a dot painting I couldn’t understand the meaning of the design but just saw a pretty painting” (Gloria Doolan).

Seeing the beauty in the artworks Gloria began to learn the meanings and stories behind them, her sister cousin began sharing the stories whilst she was painting. This is how Gloria says she was able to find her true self and understand who she was. She is thankful that she has learnt to look and listen.

Gloria’s artworks are in keeping with the Keringke tradition of meticulous fine dotting and depiction. Her paintings show fine details and the dot work and patterns are reminiscent of lace work. She depicts Corroboree’s and ceremonies as well as the seven sisters which is a Dreamtime creation story where the seven sisters descended from the sky travelling to earth to hunt and gather bush tucker. During their travels they began to paint their bodies and perform dance cycles which became an integral part of ceremonies.