Hills of Bedford Station, c. 1982

natural earth pigments on plywood

61 x 92 cm

Est. $20,000 – $30,000

Provenance: Purchased from Peggy Patrick (OAM), Warmun, WA, 1994 Neil McLeod Fine Arts Studio, Vic Private Collection, Vic, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Neil McLeod Fine Arts Studio
Artwork story: Paddy Jaminji was born around 1912 at Bedford Downs station in the East Kimberley and spent most of his life working as a stockman. In 1975, as award wages forced Aboriginal pastoral workers from stations across the Kimberley, he was among the first to settle at Turkey Creek, the community that would become Warmun. It was there that he assisted his nephew Rover Thomas in the evolution of the Gurrir Gurrir ceremony, painting the spirits, mythological figures, and landscapes of the songs onto discarded plywood boards using ochres and natural resins. As other community members began to paint and Thomas emerged as the movement's leading figure, Jaminji was acknowledged as its founder. His headstone at Warmun reads: "Him be the first one. Do it proper bush way." Hills of Bedford Station, estimated by Neil McLeod OAM to have been painted between 1981 and 1983, is among the early works of that founding moment. It was acquired by McLeod directly from artist and Elder Peggy Patrick OAM at Warmun in 1994, who had kept it in her house and described it as "old rubbish paintings from old man Paddy." Bedford Downs was the Country of Jaminji's birth and working life, and a subject he returned to throughout his practice. The three great arched forms in ochre, red, and yellow rising from a dark ground are the hills themselves, their peaks traced in white dots, a band of undulating dotted lines across the upper register describing the ridgeline as seen from the flat. It is a direct and monumental rendering of Country by the man who first found a way to paint it.

Catalogues178 of 257

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Sale 3 · Lot 30

Paddy (Jampin) Jaminji

c.1912 – 1996

Region: Kimberley
Community: Warmun (Turkey Creek)
Language group: Gija (Kija, Gidja, Kitja, Kidja)

Hills of Bedford Station, c. 1982

natural earth pigments on plywood

61 x 92 cm

Est. $20,000 – $30,000

Provenance: Purchased from Peggy Patrick (OAM), Warmun, WA, 1994 Neil McLeod Fine Arts Studio, Vic Private Collection, Vic, acquired from the above Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Neil McLeod Fine Arts Studio
Artwork story: Paddy Jaminji was born around 1912 at Bedford Downs station in the East Kimberley and spent most of his life working as a stockman. In 1975, as award wages forced Aboriginal pastoral workers from stations across the Kimberley, he was among the first to settle at Turkey Creek, the community that would become Warmun. It was there that he assisted his nephew Rover Thomas in the evolution of the Gurrir Gurrir ceremony, painting the spirits, mythological figures, and landscapes of the songs onto discarded plywood boards using ochres and natural resins. As other community members began to paint and Thomas emerged as the movement's leading figure, Jaminji was acknowledged as its founder. His headstone at Warmun reads: "Him be the first one. Do it proper bush way." Hills of Bedford Station, estimated by Neil McLeod OAM to have been painted between 1981 and 1983, is among the early works of that founding moment. It was acquired by McLeod directly from artist and Elder Peggy Patrick OAM at Warmun in 1994, who had kept it in her house and described it as "old rubbish paintings from old man Paddy." Bedford Downs was the Country of Jaminji's birth and working life, and a subject he returned to throughout his practice. The three great arched forms in ochre, red, and yellow rising from a dark ground are the hills themselves, their peaks traced in white dots, a band of undulating dotted lines across the upper register describing the ridgeline as seen from the flat. It is a direct and monumental rendering of Country by the man who first found a way to paint it.