Artist: Shirley Purdie
Title : Home
Size : 124cm x 60cm
Date : 2003
Language Group: Gija
Description : This painting by Shirley Purdie is both iconographic and cartographic in its representation of a map depicting Shirley’s home. The cameo iconographs represent significant geophysical features in the country around Turkey Creek and toward Norton Station, part of the Violet Valley aggregation, where Shirley and her husband, Gordon Barney have a house.
Biography of Artist: Shirley was born at Gilbun (Mabel Downs Station) about 1948. In the early 1990’s she began painting her country, inspired by her mother, Madigan Thomas, her uncle, Jack Britten, and the older artists of the Warmun Community. Shirley is now a senior artist at Warmun and has exhibited in many group exhibitions both in Australia and internationally. Her work is included in several major Australian collections including the Northern Territory University, The Edith Cowan University (WA), Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia; and the Kerry stokes Collection in Perth.
