Wandjinasby Lucy Ward

The cover of this notebook depicts an reproduction image of an artwork titled Wandijnas by Aboriginal artist Lucy Ward. The Wandjina are a long way from their Kimberley homelands. And yet, this distance does not weaken their spiritual or elemental power. For the Ngarinyin, Worrorra and Wunambal people of the north-west Kimberley, the Wandjina are the central figure of religious significance. According to legend, they were the physical manifestation of great spirit beings who controlled the elements, such as wind, lightning and rain. During the Ngarrangarni or Dreaming, their actions and adventures shaped the landscape and helped create Indigenous law. At the end of creation time, they left their images on the rock faces and escarpments, in order to watch over the country and its Indigenous inhabitants, and to ensure the continuity of traditional law. Over milenia, the repainting of the Wandjina has become a sacred act of passage, connecting the Ngarinyin, Worrorra and Wunambal people in an unbroken link with both their ancestors and the Ngarrangarni.

Artist:Lucy Ward
Title:Wandjinas
ID:AB015
Medium:Hard cover A5 approx 112 blank pages
Size:16 x 22 cm
Region:Kimberley, Western Australia

Artist

Lucy Ward was born in approximately 1920 and comes from Ngarangarri country which is now referred to as Beverley Springs Station, located in the Central Kimberley’s. Lucy is part of a second wave of women artist from this area whose lives have included key events such as walking in from country and establishing their first contact with white people, displacement and then return to country.

Lucy began painting in 2003 and since then her works have been exhibited to critical acclaim throughout Australia as well as in America, Europe and Asia. She is considered one of the leading contemporary painters of the Wandjina region. Lucy is best known for her paintings of sugar bar using a provactive and daring mix of earthy and bright colours within her paintings. Wandjina and Ngarinyin country is the central focus of her paintings and she balances a strong formal sense with a playful idiosyncratic vision.

In 2006 at the City of Stirling Art Prize the judges commented on her prize winning artwork as “vibrant, happy and lively as well as optically challenging and full of movement” (City of Stirling, 2006). In 2007 she was one of several finalists in the 2007 Wynne and Alice Art Prizes. She has held eight solo exhibitions through Mossenson Galleries as well as having her artworks held in several important public collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

View more artworks by this artist