MacDonnell Rangesby Hilary Wirri

Hilary Wirri was born on 20th September 1956 at Ragged’s Well, approximately 40km from Papunya Community in Central Australia. As a young child, he and his siblings including his brother Kevin Wirri would watch the other well known artists paint. They would spend much of their time in Hermannsburg Community, an hour outside of Alice Springs, watching and learning from Keith Namitjira, Edwin Pareroultja and Joshua Ebatarinja.

It was in the 1980’s that he decided that he would start painting himself and over the years has become an established artist in his own right. His style is similar to the most well known Aboriginal artist, Albert Namitjira. Hilary is a water colour artist and the subjects of his paintings are the landscapes and important sites around his homelands including, the MacDonnell Ranges, Mount Sonder, and Uluru.

Hilary has participated in several group exhibitions since 2009 around Australia and has friends and family members in Brisbane who promote his artworks and bring attention to some of his larger paintings.

Watercolours are very unique and Central Art recognises this and nurtures those artists, like, Hilary Wirri to continue to paint and show the world the beautiful Central Australian landscape. Many dreaming stories are attached to these beautiful ranges, particularly around Alice Springs which situated in the centre of the MacDonnell Ranges. Aboriginal Dream-time stories share how these land forms were created.

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