“KINYU” KINYU, THE SPIRIT DOG. THE SWEEPING LINES IN THE PAINTING DEPICT THE SANDHILLS WHERE KINYU SLEEPS. The Kinyu warnini or Rockholes were named after this spirit dog; Nampitjin would hunt in this area and leave food (goanna) for Kinyu......... “MIDJUL” Eubena has painted some of her country south west of Balgo along the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route. The majority of the painting shows the tali (sandhills) that dominate this country. The central circles are tjurrnu (soakwater) named MIDJUL with leaves so Kinyu wouldn't come out and Eubena would also leave gifts of goanna for Kinyu...... Eubena (Yupinya) Nampitjin , one of the best known of the Warlayirti Artists from Balgo Hills, was born in the early 1920s in Tjinndjaldpa, south of Jupiter Well in the Great Sandy Desert , Western Australia. Eubena was taught mapam, traditional healing skills, as a young girl by her mother, Mukaka. Eubena lived a nomadic life with her family in their ancestral country, hunting, performing ceremonies and law for the maintenance of their country and for their own spiritual well-being. It was a harsh life and gradually the extended family dispersed, many going west to the outstation of Jigalong. Eubena married Tjapaltjarrri Gimme a fierce young warrior from her country ,(Stelle Gimme is their daughter and has artwork on this website also). Gimme, Eubena and their family then went droving along the Canning Stock Route, before settling at Billiluna Station, 220 km south of Halls Creek. In 1948 Eubena, Gimme and their six children moved to the join the Pallotine monks at Old Mission, moving with them to the present site at Balgo Hills in 1963. Before his death, Gimme assisted Father Anthony Piele to compile a Kukatja dictionary to which Eubena also contributed, and today she is one of the few people alive who maintains a full Kukatja vocabulary. When the painting movement spread from Central Australia to the remote outpost of Balgo in the early 1980s, it was the men who began to paint first, and Eubena began by collaborating with her second husband Wimmitji Tjapanardi. Their work shared a luminous and intricate complexity along with a love of the warm reds, oranges and yellows that continue to be Eubena's signature today. She is one of the most esteemed law women in the community, and as a highly successful national and international artist, generously provides for her extended family and community. Eubena sings her country on her exuberant canvases, which have become increasingly bold and free, her generous paint-laden brush strokes evoking the warm colours and the contours of the desert. The major Dreaming stories depicted by Eubena in her work are from the Tingari (ancestral women) cycle and the Wati Kutjarra (Two Men Dreaming). Other themes in her paintings include: Tjumu (soak water); Tjukarra (rock holes); Malu (kangaroo dreaming); Bush tomato; Goanna, Mouse, Moon and Dingo Dreaming. Eubena's work is represented in major public and private collections in both Australia and overseas....Artwork comes with a Certificate of Authenticity....To Enquire contact Watling Galleries 07 5531 4781.