Beyula Puntungka Napanangka

Beyula Puntunkga Napanangka was born in Papunya in 1966. She is the third of five daughters of pioneer Papunya Tula painter Limpi Tjapangati and his second wife Tilly Napaltjarri. Beyula grew up in Papunya, attending the local primary school, where she completed Year 6. Later the family moved to Haasts Bluff where they remained until Limpi died in 1985 and they moved back to Papunya. Here Beyula lost her mother. Two of her sisters have also passed away. In Papunya Beyula married her first husband Lindsay Rowe with whom she had two daughters, Sabrina and Phyllis Rowe. After Lindsay‘s death, Beyula married Bob Dixon, who was a father to her two girls. They now have three grandchildren.

From their father Beyula and her four sisters inherited rights to the country near the Mereenie Range which Beyula often depicts in her paintings. She also inherited a bushfire story Kali Karringpa from her grandmother, which is the first to paint. Her mother’s Dreaming place was the Dingo Dreaming site of Nyumanu near Kintore.

Beyula learnt to paint from watching her father, and like him she has a distinctive style. At Haasts Bluff she practiced on cardboard, first painting commercially for Warumpi Arts. Beyula has been exhibiting with Papunya Tjupi since the company’s first exhibition at Ivan Dougherty Gallery in 2007. One of her earliest works featured on the invitation and her fellow artists chose her to travel to Sydney with seven other artists for the opening. There Beyula took part in the second Papunya Tjupi print workshop with COFA’s Cicada Press and immediately displayed an affinity with this medium. Though she does not particularly like travelling, she has returned to Sydney another two times to make more prints. Beyula’s painting and print-making have developed dramatically over the past three and a half years and she is one of Papunya Tjupi’s most senior and consistent artists. Beyula’s younger sister Larabelle (1968- 2008) was also a talented, though occasional, painter and her niece Mary Roberts Nakamarra is one of Papunya Tjupi’s rising stars. She says she’s painting because she enjoys drawing and painting and hopes to have her own exhibition one day.