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Joycie Morton Petyarre was born in Alice Springs in 1976 and started painting when she was nineteen. Her mother is Betty Morton, her sister Cindy Morton and her daughter is Nikita Inkamala. Her husband Eric Inkamala, is also an artist, and they have five daughters and two sons.

She paints several dreamings that have been passed down from her grandmother, Betty Kemarre. Joycie says "I learnt everything from her grandmother, hunting, bush tucker, dreamings, bush medicine and painting."

Joycie paints medicinal flora found in the country around Ampilatwatja in Central Australia. They are used for soothing skin infections by way of an ointment, or made into a drink to help with coughs and colds. Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.

Joycie’s paintings have gained a strong following in a short period of time and she is an artist to watch. 

Meredith Curley is an artist from Ernabella in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yangkuntjatjara (APY) Lands. Meredith is the daughter of acclaimed artists, Imitjala Curley and David [Kun] Curley (deceased), she is one of five Sisters including artists, Madeline and Maria Curley.

As the daughter of a senior traditional woman, Meredith holds cultural knowledge relating to the Ngapari - sugar leaf or lerp - Tjukurpa at Watarru. Her connection to the Kampurparpa Tjukurpa in the Walytjitjata region is through her mother’s mother, Puni Puni. It is a small homeland just over the Northern Territory border about 46km north of Kalka on the APY Lands. Meredith also paints a major Dreamtime story from her country, being the ‘Ngintaka’ story. This is a significant story about a lizard man who stole a grinding stone and was subsequently pursued across country before meeting his fate. In these works, Meredith depicts the cave where the Ngintaka and his wife, the Echidna, were on honeymoon in a cave. They ate a sweet treat which is a chrysalis that is found on eucalyptus leaves.

Meredith is an emerging artist to follow, and her work is popular with collectors in Australia and overseas.

Your home or office doesn't need to look like an art gallery. Here are a few hints to follow when buying art for your home or office:

• set a budget you can afford
• determine what size piece might work for you (measure the space you have in mind)
• do some research online to find some styles and artists you like
• don't worry about framing or stretching yet, this will happen later

Eddie Blitner is from Naiyalrindji country on the mighty Roper River, south east of Katherine in the Northern Territory (down the Roper Highway at Yugal Mangi Nkugurr Community).

Eddie started painting at an early age where he watched and learned from his renowned clan leader grandfathers Fred, Gerry and Donald Blitner and other Elders who taught him to blend ochre, apply paint and to carve. They passed on stories of the work they were doing.

Other members of this clan (Barbil) taught him how to make flint spear heads, craft boomerangs and traditional hunting using the weapons to hunt, fish, find bush-tucker and make bush medicine to survive in the remote bush.

Eddie paints many of his family stories in his paintings of country. He incorporates totems, spirits and ancestors, bush-tucker, animals in traditional x-ray style, men's hunting and fishing and corroboree themes.  Eddie takes great care in applying his craft. Often taking weeks to do final touches on his layered stories within the one canvas shot. His paints are a blend of acrylic and flicks of natural ochres and sand on the background to represent Country.

A continuing feature in Eddie's work are 'Mimi's or Mimi Spirits' - these appear in different language and clan cultures in different characters. Eddie paints the guardian Mimi spirits. These are good Mimi. Some Mimi are evil or mischievous and other types of spirit characters.

Today, as a high-profile artist, he frequently works with children and young men teaching them and passing on his skills. Eddie travels widely and is always willing to impart his traditional knowledge and artist skills to others . Not only an artist, he is an accomplished yidaki (didgeridoo) maker and is a fine traditional carver as well. He has devoted many paid and unpaid hours helping underprivileged kids to learn what his Elders passed on to him before their early passing.

Eddie's works are a favourite of mine and he also has a strong following amongst collectors and galleries.

Few stories capture people’s imagination like that of the “Seven Sisters”.

The Seven Sisters Story is told by aboriginal people all over Australia. The stories vary from area to area, but one common factor is that the Seven Sisters are always watchful or running away from the unwelcome advances of a male (Orion).

In NSW, the sisters are called Mayi-mayi. Mayi-mayi were chased by a man called Wurunna. He succeeds in catching two of the women by using trickery. Eventually they escape and rise up into the sky forming the star constellation we know as Pleiades.

In the Kimberley area, the Seven Sisters were chased by the Eagle Hawk. He pursued them into the heavens where we now know the women as the star constellation called Pleiades and the Eagle Hawk as The Southern Cross.

In the Lake Eyre area, the ancestor male who tried to capture one of the women was prevented by a great flood.

In Central Australia, the women (who formed Pleiades) had been up in the sky for some time. They decided it may be safe to come back down to Earth. They made camp in a sheltered cave surrounded by a grove of wild figs. Nirunja, the man of Orion, saw them leave and followed them down to Earth. He made a screen to hide behind and from here he could watch the women without being seen. That night when the women went to sleep he entered the cave and wanted to lie down with them. But the women woke and once more they escaped him by going up into the sky. He, Nirunja, followed. He continues to pursue them in the heavens as the star constellation Orion. On a clear night you can look up into the sky and see Pleiades and Orion close by. He will never give up.

There are many myths about the Seven Sisters, and this story forms an important part of women’s ceremonies all over Australia.

Today, I'd like to introduce you to Eileen Bird Kngwarreye (pronounced Ung-wahr-ay).

Eileen is an Eastern Arrernte woman, and her country is Arnumarra, near Gem Tree northeast of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Her family grew up at Harts Range where her brothers and sisters continue to live. Eileen grew up on her country at Harts Range but moved to southern Utopia to marry her husband, the late Paddy Bird. Together, they had eleven children (Maggie, Tanya and Alvira Bird among them). Paddy's mother was a renowned artist named Ada Bird Petyarre, sister to the famous Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre.

Her artworks mainly depict either the ʻArlatyeyʼ story or Women's ceremony. ʻArlatyeyʼ is the Anmatyerre word for Pencil Yam. Many female artists often paint dreamings associated with bush foods, as they are vital to Aboriginal traditional life. Through painting, they pay homage and celebration of the continued growth of these plants to flourish from season to season.

Eileen has been painting professionally since the mid 1990’s and her beautiful colourful works have a strong following.

The Anaty (desert yam or bush potato) is a staple food for the Aboriginal people of Utopia. They are tubers, or swollen roots, of the Ipomoea costata, a fast-growing creeper with large purplish-pink trumpet flowers. It is usually found in the Acacia scrub lands and the yams grow underground with its shrub growing above ground, up to 1 metre high.

The anaty can be harvested at any time of the year and can sometimes be hard to locate as it can be growing as deep as 90cm underground. It tastes much like a common sweet potato and it is usually cooked by placing hot coals over it for about 20 minutes. It is then peeled before being eaten.

The Anaty is a central part of the Utopia Aboriginal people's dreaming and artists who have had this story passed down to them through their family lines can depict this story in their art. Examples of artists who paint this story include Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Lisa Mills Pwerle and Shakira Petrick Mills.