The art of Ampilatwatja is strikingly different from that of other indigenous painting with a much broader colour spectrum and finely dotted
landscapes depicting each artist’s own particular country or place they have custodianship over. Ampilatwatja is located in the eastern Desert North of Utopia it is the cultural heartland of the Alywarr nation.

The root of Ampilatwatja art is in the country. The finely dotted landscapes depict each artist’s own particular country or place they have custodianship over. Apmer (country) and all the different bush medicines and bush tucker are also reflected within each painting. This information is mapping the country; each artist is painting her own little piece of one big map – that is why the artists themselves don’t judge a painting as good or bad. These paintings are sacred paintings – they are not frivolously done. Whether they are beautiful landscapes or dreaming lines and roundels’ there is no difference, because it’s all about country.

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