Kathleen Paddoon

 

BALGO HILLS, WARLAYIRTI ARTISTS, GREAT SANDY DESERT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Born: C 1937

Location: Yagga Yagga area, Ngantalarra
Language: Ngarti
Skin: Napanangka

Kathleen is a warm and delightful person living in the community of Kururrungku (Billiluna). In her youth Kathleen walked around the country of Mungai (father's country), Nantalarra and Nakarra Nakarra (mother's country) with her mother, brother, father and uncle. They would travel to Gordon Downs Station for rations of tea, sugar, flour and tobacco.

When Kathleen was still a young girl, her family moved into Sturt Creek where she worked in the laundry. It was here that she met her husband, Paddy Paddoon, who was one of the men in the stock camp. She had two daughters at Sturt Creek before they moved on to the old Balgo Mission. Kathleen gave birth to her third daughter at the old stables of the mission. The children were placed in the dormitories and Kathleen worked as a gardener and in the kitchen making bread. Kathleen and Paddy would try to travel back to Sturt Creek for weekends and holidays with the children as much as possible. This is where their last child was born.

Since moving to Billiluna, Kathleen has started painting the country of her family south of Yagga Yagga. She depicts the landscape rich with bush food, which is collected by the women in coolamons. Kathleen is developing a style of soft muted colours applied with a thick brush daubed across the canvas. She paints with much enthusiasm inspired by the love for her country. Principal themes in her work are: Nantalarra, her family's country south of Yagga Yagga; rock holes, water; karnti (bush potato); tjirrilpatja (bush carrot); purra (bush tomato); small spirit people; cockatoo

 

Selected exhibitions

2003 Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery, Mooloolaba; Eight by Three, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne; Desert Mob Show, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs; Purtatjanirri Kamu Warrmala, Framed Gallery, Darwin

2002 von Schroeder Fine Arts, Tasmania; Tali, Tjurrnu and Waniri: Paintings by three senior women from the Great Sandy Desert, Kimberley Art Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Short on Size, Short St. Gallery, Broome; The Peter Bailie Acquisitive Art Award Flinders Art Museum, Adelaide;
2000 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs
1999 Short on Size, Short Street Gallery, Broome
1994 Aboriginal Desert Women's Law, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat; Aboriginal Desert Women's Law, A.R.T. Collins Place Gallery, Melbourne
1989 Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin