Queenie, 2026

natural earth pigments on plywood

59.5 x 59.5 cm

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Provenance: Direct from the artist, Warmun, WA
Artwork story: Queenie McKenzie painted her Country from two angles at once. Hills are shown in profile and rivers and roads from above, and each shape is outlined in dots. She gathered her own ochres and mixed them into new colours, including the soft pinks and pale purples that became a hallmark of her work. The rounded hill forms in this portrait, in ochre, black and brown and ringed in white and red dots, resemble the hills she painted around Texas Downs, where she grew up and worked for decades as the station cook. She was the first woman to paint at Warmun, and she began after watching Rover Thomas work. This portrait is part of Peter Thomas's series of portraits of the first-generation painters of the East Kimberley.

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b. 1975

natural earth pigments on plywood

59.5 x 59.5 cm

Sold

Provenance: Direct from the artist, Warmun, WA
Artwork story: Queenie McKenzie painted her Country from two angles at once. Hills are shown in profile and rivers and roads from above, and each shape is outlined in dots. She gathered her own ochres and mixed them into new colours, including the soft pinks and pale purples that became a hallmark of her work. The rounded hill forms in this portrait, in ochre, black and brown and ringed in white and red dots, resemble the hills she painted around Texas Downs, where she grew up and worked for decades as the station cook. She was the first woman to paint at Warmun, and she began after watching Rover Thomas work. This portrait is part of Peter Thomas's series of portraits of the first-generation painters of the East Kimberley.