Mervyn Rubuntja

Mervyn was born on the 11th of Feburary 1958 at the Telegraph Station in Alice Springs. His mother, Cynthia, was a Western Arrernte woman. His father, the famous painter, the late Mr Wenton Rubuntja Pengarte AM (c. 1926-2005), was an important cultural and political role model for Mervyn. He was a senior lawman, a respected member of the community and a key figure in the land rights movement in the 1970s. Mr Wenton Rubuntja Pengarte was encouraged to paint by Albert Namatjara, who was his father’s cousin. When Mervyn was 13 years old his family moved to Hermansburg. This is where he first saw watercolour paintings as he watched his uncles Maurice, Oscar and Keith Namatjira painting like their father Albert.

Arnulf Ebatarinja, another uncle, gave him watercolour paperboard and told him to paint and that was the beginning. Mervyn’s family moved back to Alice Springs in 1975 and he began to paint with Basil Rantji, who taught him how to mix colours. When his father also gave him paperboards, Mervyn learnt by watching him paint.

Mervyn lives at Larapinta Valley town camp where he paints at the Yarrenyty-Arltere Learning Centre. He also paints for Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra ‘Many Hands’ Art Centre and has sold his paintings at the Papunya Tula Gallery and the Arunta Book Shop in Alice Springs. In the 2006 Mervyn was one of the 46 artists invited to submit a work on paper for the Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery’s Tallis Foundation 2006 National Works on Paper exhibition, one of the longest running and most significant prize exhibitions of its type in Australia. In August 2007 Mervyn had one of his paintings selected to hang in the highly prestigious national 24th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. Mervyn is following in his father’s footsteps and painting his watercolours in the way his father taught him.