KAREN MILLS - UNTITELD

KAREN MILLS
UNTITELD, 2014
acrylic on canvas
56 x 61 cm; 97.5 x 103 cm (framed)
 
PROVENANCE
Alcaston Gallery, Vic
Private Collection, WA
Art Leven, NSW
 
STORY
Karen Mills is a Darwin-based artist and descendant of the Balanggarra people, of the Oombulgurri and Forrest River reserves in the East Kimberley, Western Australia. Karen Mills' artwork has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is held in private collections around the world. The inspiration for this work is the desert landscape of Sturt Creek, a major creek system in the East Kimberley that flows into Paruku (Lake Gregory), on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. This ethereal painting illustrates Karen Mills's observations of this landscape, and the rich history of Indigenous culture pre-colonisation, often hidden beneath layers of sediment formed over thousands of years. The use of clay adds a provocative dimension to Mills’ paintings. As Mill's puts it, “I see my paintings as lyrical landscapes of memory [...] When I was out on Country at Sturt Creek Station, I thought deeply about the Old People and the never ending presence of Aboriginal culture and history that survives in the Land. The sight of stone flakes scattered on the ground, exposed in the open, was clear evidence that Aboriginal people had lived there enjoying the abundance of the creek for a very long time".

"All the work is made with natural pigments. I like the simplicity of making my own paint with dry pigments, water and a binder. One of the pigments is a white ochre from Darwin and is the unbleached, sandy colour that can be seen in the work.”"Making my own paint has become integral to my painting process. Its visual presence gives me a sense of groundedness and connection with the earth"
Karen Mills, 2014