Margaret Turner Petyarre

Margaret Turner Petyarre was from Utopia in Central Australia. Margaret was related to well known artists Kathleen and Gloria Petyarre and whilst she had been painting for many years she recently emerged in her own right but sadly passed away on 28 July 2008.

Margaret’s work vary from depictions of “body painting”, which represent the lines that are painted on women’s breast during ceremony to clusters of minute dots that are portrayals of “bush medicine” stories. She worked in batik then commenced painting with acrylic on canvas. In her depiction of traditional stories, she has moved from the fine dotting technique employed in her batik work to realist elements and now has reduced the iconographic elements to a minimalist use of dots.