Lily Kelly Napangardi

Tali Sandhills  |  150h x 90w  |  RK127

Not stretched or framed  |  Acrylic on canvas

Lily Kelly Napangardi is a senior artist and law woman from Mt Liebig community, 325 kms north-west of Alice Springs. Lily Kelly Napangardi was born at Haasts Bluff in 1948 and moved with her family to the newly established settlement at Papunya in the 1960s. After the steady growth of the Desert Painting movement at Papunya during the 1970s and 1980s, Lily became involved in painting, helping her husband Norman Kelly with his paintings. Lily Kelly Napangardi returned to Mt Liebig with her husband in the early 1980s.

Lily began making her own paintings in the early 1980s, winning the Northern Territory Art Award for painting in 1986. She has custodial rights for the Women’s Dreaming story associated with Kunajarrayi. Lily’s subjects include her country’s sandhills (Tali Tali), its winds and the desert environment after rain, especially the sandhills of the Kintore and Coniston areas. Her paintings often refer to the seasonal changes in this sandhill country, and sometimes mark the crucial waterholes found there.

Lily Kelly Napangardi is a highly regarded and collectable artist.