Bird Petyarre & Middlebrook

Penrith Regional Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the powerful cross-cultural collaboration - Bird Petyarre & Middlebrook, plus a drawing workshop - Observational Drawing with David Middlebrook.

The two artists, from very different backgrounds, met by chance in the last three years of Ada’s life. They spent time together talking and drinking lots of tea at Alice Springs and Mulga Bore Utopia, forging a collaborative friendship.

David has always felt compelled to the horizon and is fascinated by its symbolism as unobtainable; it is impossible to get there. Ada specialised as a body painter (awelye means body painting), and she would paint her sisters for ceremonies. Her paintings feature the curved shapes of breasts, and her Dreaming relates to arnkerrthe, the mountain devil lizard, a significant ancestral figure for Ada and her country, Anungara.

As an extra special treat, David will facilitate an observational drawing workshop in the studio and heritage gardens on Saturday, 5 June. Students will experiment with ink on paper in a drawing book they can take home to continue creating in after class. The workshop is suitable for beginners (adults and children welcome). Places are limited.

Bird Petyarre & Middlebrook is a FREE exhibition on at Penrith Regional Gallery, from Saturday 15 May to 22 August 2021.

Images of artworks:

David Middlebrook, Lost, 2020, Pigment ink on canvas 77x102cm, Courtesy of the artist

Ada Bird Petyarre, Body Painting for Ceremony, 1998, 120 x 200cm © estate of the artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd