Nora Petyarre Club

Soakage and Mulga Tree, 2017 | 90h x 90w | RK755

Not framed or stretched | Acrylic on canvas

Nora Petyarre Club (b. 1948) is the daughter of Lena Pwerle and the late Left Hand Sam Kngwarreye. Nora is a kind woman with powerful voice, much like her mother who is an influential elder in Utopia. Nora lives in the Utopia region with her mother and large extended family, including artists Rosie Pwerle and Julie Pengarte.

Her paintings often represent her age-old Dreaming story of Yerrampe (Honey Ant) from her countries, Ngkwarlerlaneme and Arnkawenyerr in the northern reaches of the Utopia region. Her father was one of the owners of these countries which meant he was a teacher of the Dreaming stories.

Nora was unavailable at the time of the Utopia - A Picture Story project during the 1980's but with several other women, works were commissioned for the Robert Holmes á Court collection and are included in the publication. In the late 1980's Nora moved into the medium of acrylics with the other women of Utopia and has never looked back.

In this painting, Nora uses circular designs to represent soakages that dot her land in the Utopia Region.  Nora recalls that these soakages, now all dried and used up, had plenty of water in them a long time ago, even when she was growing up, providing her people with a much needed water supply.  With intimate knowledge of the land, Nora's ancestors knew how, and where, to find them in their harsh desert environment. The linear designs represent water running after rain. In this painting Nora also paints Mulga trees that can be found in her country.

Nora's paintings have been gaining in popularity and have a strong following amongst collectors.