Kathleen Ngale

Kathleen began her art career in the late 1970's in the medium of batik with over eighty other women from the Utopia Region in Central Australia. Her work in batik was featured in Utopia: A Picture Story, at the S.H. Ervine Gallery. When the acrylics on canvas movement swept Utopia in the late 1980s, Kathleen, like many of the other artists, swiftly changed mediums. Kathleen's popularity as an artist grew in the early '00s for her simplistic "Bush Plum" paintings.  Her work has been exhibited around the globe and is featured frequently in auctions. Kathleen loves to paint and talk about her work. Though she does not speak much English, she continues to try and teach the wider world about her paintings and the Anwekety that features in them. Kathleen refers to the Anwekety as Bush Plum, which in fact are small black conkerberries that grow on the plant after a good rain. Living with her sisters and extended family in the Utopia Region, Kathleen is encouraged by them and readily passes on her enthusiasm. Artists Polly Ngale, Ally and Glady Kemarre and Angelina Pwerle are just a few family members to name.