Untitled (Dingo, helicopter, and the moon)

$2,330.00

This painting by Doreen Chapman is a vivid reflection of her time spent on country, created during a week-long painting trip to Punmu. Travelling from her home base in Port Hedland, Doreen made the two-day journey to Punmu Community with her mother and elder May Chapman, alongside fellow artist Mulyatingki Marney. Punmu is located beside Nyayartakujarra (Lake Dora), a vast salt lake feeding into the Karlamilyi / Rudall River. The surrounding landscape – characterised by this immense salt lake, red tali (sandhills), and nearby yinta (permanent springs) such as Wirlarra, Rawa, Yilyara, Jila-jila, and Tuu-tuu – influenced the week of painting in Punmu studio.

This painting holds traces of Doreen’s encounters from the week: exploratory walks along the sand dunes and salt lake under a rising moon, the discovery of dingo tracks, and the overhead sight of a helicopter’s distant arrival.

Doreen Chapman was born at Jigalong Mission in the early 1970s, though she soon moved with her family to the newly Aboriginal-owned Strelley Station. In her youth, Doreen travelled extensively between remote Pilbara communities including Warralong, Punmu, and Marble Bar with her mother, senior Martumili artist May Wokka Chapman. Today she primarily lives in Warralong community and paints between Spinifex Hill Studio and Martumili Artists.

A deaf woman, Doreen uses painting as a vital means of communication and self-expression. She began her artistic career with Martumili Artists in 2009, when she and other women from Punmu created a large collaborative painting to raise funds for the community. Since then, her work has received widespread recognition. Doreen has been a finalist in major national art prizes, including the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2024) and the Lester Prize (2016, 2019), and has won numerous regional awards such as the Cossack Art Award for Best Painting by an Indigenous Artist (2015, 2016, 2021). In 2024, she was the only artist invited to exhibit across all six venues of the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns.