Seed story
$880.00
That bucket painting is about the grass dried up and turned yellow and the seeds, bright orange and red. The white represents the ant holes. The ants gather the seeds and put them in a pile near their anthills. The blue is the water. The women gather the seeds and put them in a coolamon, then they will be grinded on a flat stone and a sphere-shaped stone to become flour to make damper. We cook that damper in the hot sand on the fire until it’s ready to be eaten.
Topsy Steppa Beasley’s Seed Story interpreted and transcribed by Charmaine Corbett, Topsy’s grand-daughter, May 26, 2025.
Topsy Kemarre Steppa Beasley was born at Hatches Creek in the Davenport Ranges circa 1932 and is now one of the most senior painters living in Wutunugurra (Epenarra). She has been painting with the Epenarra artist collective for decades and has developed an intuitive and heavily textural painting style which she uses to depict a wide range of subjects, often focusing on particular species of flora and fauna. Topsy’s choice of subject has had significant influence on younger members of the Epenarra artists collective, many of whom have followed her lead in using art as a vessel for multigenerational knowledge sharing.
