Country, 2009 | 45h x 30w | RK974
Not stretched or framed | Acrylic on canvas
Mary Morton Kemarre (c.1931-2016) was a much-loved member of Utopia's art community. She lived there with her large extended family and four daughters (Lucky, Audrey, Sarah and Ruby) who are all well-known Artists.
Mary was one of the original group of batik artists which formed in the late 1970's. Transitioning to acrylics soon after the group disbanded, she became a impressive player in the art of Kurrajong and Arnkawenyerr communities in northern Utopia.
Mary was the first wife of a man named Old Billy Morton and together they had seven children. Many of them continue to live on their traditional country just south of Mary's original home. Mary, along with her sister Katie Kemarre and other Antarrengeny women, regularly made the trip north to perform ceremony as required. The colours that belong to Antarrengeny for ceremony are red ochre and white, and this is what the women would paint on their bodies in a deliberate pattern of lines. These are the same designs you can see in Mary's paintings whenever she chose to depict body paint.
Over the decades, Mary's paintings have had many personalities. Rather than finding just one stylistic niche, she loved experimenting with subject and composition. Her Country paintings are often sectioned with diagonal lines cutting through from the corners, creating what appeared to be a birds-eye perspective of the outback desert she called home.
