Douglas Kwarlpe Abbott

Douglas Kwarlpe Abbott was born in Hermannsburg in 1948 and initially grew up near Idracowra on the banks of the Finke River, south of Alice Springs. He remembers as a child going from Henbury to Hermannsburg every Christmas. He was later raised in Alice Springs by his parents Gordon and Joyleen Abbott. His paternal grandmother’s place is at Waterhouse, near Hermannsburg at the end of the James Range and the Waterhouse Range. Albert Namatjira was his classificatory grandfather. As a young boy Douglas used to watch Albert Namatjira, his cousin Clem Abbott, and other members of the original Hermannsburg watercolour artists paint. Clem advised Douglas to find his own style and try to develop it, which he did with great success. Douglas painted for many years. His paintings are found in many businesses in Alice Springs including the Central Australian Aboriginal Alcohol Programs Unit (CAAAPU) building which he helped to establish. He was included in the ‘Contemporary Cross-Currents’ section of the 1991 national touring exhibition by Flinders University Art Museum. In May 1998 one of his signature paintings of Standley Chasm was reproduced on the cover of the contemporary Australian art journal, Art Monthly. An extremely prolific painter, he was also very incentive, sometimes combining landscape with symbolic forms. His paintings are characterized by an intensity of colour. Detail is contained within simple bold shapes. He constructed a spiritual world, which appears both timeless and of the moment. Painting was extremely important to Douglas Abbott, as he once said ‘Our land is part of us. Deep inside me I miss my country. I might stop in Alice Springs here, and the station owners own the country, but I know in my heart that it’s my land.’ ‘Namatjira had it in his mind and when he started off painting he put what he had in his mind on the board and showed the whole world what a beautiful country Central Australia is’. Douglas died in 2015.