The Paradisical World of JANET DREAMER
Front: Walkabout hunting and fishing with the old people), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm (detail)
Left: Lugangarna (Palm Springs), WA.
Over: Janet Dreamer, Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, 2019
Text ©Susan McCulloch, Yarliyil Arts
Design ©Lisa Reidy
Images ©The artists
Published by Everywhen Art
The Paradisical World of
JANET DREAMER
Everywhen Art in Partnership with Yarliyil Arts
February 8-March 2, 2025
JANETDREAMER 1959-2021
My Country Stays in My Dreams
The late Kimberley Jaru painter Janet Dreamer was a unique artist.
Growing up at her birthplace of old Flora Valley Station east of Halls Creek in the 1960s, Janet Dreamer and her five siblings hunted, fished and travelled with their elders, learning of traditional life. Later, she moved to Kirkimbie Station as a kitchen worker and had two children, then to Billiluna Station and eventually to Halls Creek.
Although Janet Dreamer started painting at the age of 16 under her father’s tutelage, it was only much later, after she joined Yarliyil Arts at Halls Creek in 2013, that she started painting in earnest and with her own vision. And what a vision it was.
Known affectionately as ‘Dreamer’, her vibrantly coloured canvases with their free imagery and sizzling hues bring to life an extraordinary range of flora, wildlife and water life of Old Flora Valley Station, the lush oasis of nearby Palm Springs (Lugangarna) and that which she observed on the many journeys she called ‘walkabout’ over vast tracks of Jaru country from Derby to Halls Creek.
“My country”, she said, “stays in my dreams. I dream about my home, and I don’t forget about my country.”
At Yarliyil Arts, Dreamer was an artistic dynamo as she painted ceaselessly for hours on end. Art centre staff had never experienced anything like either her artistic style – a seamless blend of naive figuration and abstraction – or her prodigious output.
First, she would set down her main subject (typically fauna, birds, flora or water life), then semi obscure them with sweeps of luminous colours and patterns.
A number of paintings were snapped up by art centre visitors, but recognising their quality and significance, Yarliyil Arts started putting a selection aside for gallery exhibitions.
However, in 2020, the advent of Covid derailed most of the planned shows. Sadly, Mrs Dreamer’s health also declined, and she passed away in hospital in Darwin in 2021, leaving a substantial body of work.
Dreamer was a finalist in Perth’s prestigious John Stringer Prize 2022 (in a posthumous tribute) and three works were acquired by the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Joyous paintings of boundless energy, Dreamer’s works are characterised by brilliant colouration and a fresh, art naif style. In their depictions of often now rare wildlife, ceremonial practices and creation ancestors, Dreamer’s detailed, image-rich works are of both great artistic merit and profound cultural significance – offering first-hand insight into an all but forgotten world.
This exhibition launches a national exhibition programme of Dreamer’s works by Everywhen Art in partnership with Yarliyil Arts to accord this unique artist and her extraordinary paintings the recognition she and her work so richly deserve.
MAIN THEMES OF DREAMER’S WORKS
1. Her mother’s country Old Flora Valley Station (Wungu)
She said that her mother was born ‘in a little creek near the homestead’. “My mum was also raised out there, she walked that country with the old people from there, they also taught her the language, culture and traditional ways of living as they would often have to hunt for their food. I paint the two main ranges and the three rivers – Black Elvire, Fox and Johnston and the creek where her mother was born”.
2. Palm Springs (Lugangarna)
A lush waterhole and natural oasis on Old Flora Station in which she depicts a myriad of fish, turtles and other water life, as well as the surrounding lush vegetation.
3. Walkabout
An ever-unfolding array of flora and fauna and often, the creation stories that lay behind, these, which Janet had observed on her many travels through her extensive lands between Derby and Halls Creek. The word ‘walkabout’ was a term given by colonialists to the travels of First Nations peoples across their lands. The word implies that such journeys were random, unstructured, and wandering without purpose. To the contrary, the great majority of travels were extremely purposeful, planned and often undertaken annually. They included seasonal trips to places when particular plants were in flower, and/or seeding; to find and maintain the clarity of rockholes and other water sources; to visit and pay homage to creation sites and to conduct and fulfill initiation and many other ceremonial duties. Dreamer’s works frequently combine both the secular and sacred. As a landscapist she captured flora such as the grasses and trees, in the changing lights of dawn and dusk and the scenery and water life of Fox, Elvire and Johnston rivers. As a traditional woman she referenced ancestral stories and creation beings whether of human, animal or plant form.
Janet Dreamer, Yarliyil Arts, 2017
This painting depicts one of the springs behind Palm Springs with a Brolga looking around for a mate and and also feeding on the bush onions.
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Walkabout (Brolga looking for a mate at Palm Springs), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 30 cm
MM7595
$1400
found at Dilgin (Flora Valley).
Sawfish
Sawfish, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 70 cm
MM7602 | $1400
This painting depicts a story that Janet Dreamer was told. The kangaroo is going walkabout.
Mungil Plain, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 30 cm
| MM7592 |
This painting depicts a young Janet Dreamer looking for mungari (bush tucker) behind Black Elvire River next to Palm Springs.
Walkabout (A young Janet Dreamer looking for mungari bush tucker), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
$1900
This painting depicts a women and a man fishing and swimming at Palm Springs.
| MM7593 |
Walkabout (Fishing and swimming at Palm Springs), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
$1900
Walkabout, Old Flora Valley, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 45 x 70 cm
MM7604 | $1900
This painting depicts Flora Valley and the stones in the cave where the old people would do cave paintings. Janet said that around there you would see “lots of goannas and ‘lil pandanus trees growing”.
Walkabout (Cave painting at Flora Valley), 2019, acrylic on canvas 70 x 45 cm | MM7594 | $1900
This painting depicts walkabout at Fox River. When you drive past you can see kangaroos, birds and all the trees when you are looking at the hills.
| MM7597 |
Walkabout (kangaroos, birds and trees at Fox River), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
$1900
This painting depicts two brolgas looking for fish to eat. On the outer edges of the painting goannas and fish are depicted. Old Flora Valley is abundant with bush foods, birds and animals.
Two Brolgas at Old Flora Valley, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
A bird getting into the muddy water looking for fish and other food.
Bird (looking for food), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
This painting depicts 18 Mile on the other side of Flora Valley where a bird got a fright “’cos one snake was sneaking through the grass looking for mungari (food). The Bird was yelling out to all the other birds warning them about the snake”.
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Walkabout (bird and snake at 18 Mile, Flora Valley), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 45 cm
MM7600
$1900
This painting depicts catfish found in the waters at Old Flora Valley. Brolga are also depicted looking around for mungari (food).
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Walkabout at Old Flora Valley – catfish and brolgas, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 45 cm
MM7603
$2200
Sawfish found at Dilgin (Flora Valley).
Sawfish at Dilgin (Flora Valley), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 45 cm
This painting depicts ceremonies at Flora Valley. A girl is dancing for mungari (food) giving thanks. Kangaroo sitting on the hill while the peacock and bush turkey look for Bora (bush potato).
Walkabout (kangaroo, peacock and young woman’s ceremonial dance), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
“This painting depicts a time when we were walking. We saw two turkeys in the cold weather sitting down with their baby at the old airport.”
Flora Valley (two bush turkeys), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts Spring water at Tabletop just off the Duncan Highway. All the animals such as freshwater crocodile, birds, turtles, ducks and lizards are found in this area.
Spring Water at Tabletop, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts a Blanket Lizard standing up on the rock with water around him.
Blanket Lizard (Frilled neck Lizard), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts Fox River. The white represents the trees that grow there and the brown represents the rocks. It’s a big waterhole with wildflowers and animals like kangaroos, emus and even goanna go there for a drink.
Walkabout (waterhole, flowers and wildlife at Fox River), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts some of the scenery Janet would see when she went traveling around Palm Springs. She said “ one fish there, water goanna and two turtle there looking around for mungari (food). Turkey looking for tjunda (bush potato) and you also see black plums and Laju (witchetty grubs) around. There’s a bird we call dede and always see other birds sitting on the rocks. There are also a boomerang and spears.”
Walkabout (one fish, water goanna, turtles, black plums, bush potato and birds at Palm Springs), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts two women singing and dancing for their country. “You can see the spear, axe and no. 7 boomerang they all use to get the mungara (food) near the riverside on Fox River.”
| MM7621 |
Walkabout (two women singing and dancing for country with bush food implements), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
$2800
This painting depicts Fox River. Janet said “there’re white gum trees and ‘lil birds. Crocodiles down the river and lots of mungari (bush food)”.
Walkabout (white gums and little birds at Fox River), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts Table Top Country at Fox River. “The spring water runs down. The first rock hole we can swim in it but the second we couldn’t ‘cos the current is too strong. Up there is a windmill and other things.’’
Walkabout – Table Top Country at Fox River, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 90 cm, MM7612 | $2800
This painting depicts a crocodile sneaking up on birds and the kangaroo looking for food. Also depicted is an echidna in the grasses. The brolga is also looking for mungari (bush food). Depicted on the side is an ancestor/ person who comes from this area. He is looking out to Country.
Walkabout (crocodile, birds, kangaroos, echidna and ancestral figure), 2019, acrylic on canvas,
This painting depicts animals that are found at and around Palm Springs- kangaroos, and birds. In the middle of the painting a waterfall is depicted. Other bush foods also found in the area are bush potato, bush onion, witchetty grubs, and bush tomotoes.
Palm Springs (wildife, mungari (bush tucker) and waterfall), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 60 cm
This painting depicts Crocodile Dreaming.
“One old lady and the birds singing for the crocodile to come out at Fox River.”
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| MM7619 | $3500
Crocodile Dreaming (ancestral woman singing for crocodile)
2019, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 60 cm
This represents Janet’s early life. Born in 1959 at Old Flora Valley Station, east of Halls Creek, her parents were Jaru, her mother from Billiluna and her father from Balgo. Growing up on the station, she would go hunting and fishing with the old people. After marrying and living on Kilkimby Station in the Northern Territory, lived between Halls Creek, Kununurra and Billiluna for many years. In Halls Creek, she began painting plant foods and bush meats that she grew up with. Later, her work was more about places on her Country. “My country”, she said, “stays in my dreams. I dream about my home, and I don’t forget about my country.”
Walkabout (hunting and fishing with the old people), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm
In this painting Janet was remembering the scenery at Mongel Plain and Fox River. “Lots of desert flowers and bush turkeys on the plain. One painful memory which I can’t get out my head was at Fox River where a young gardiya (white person) was taken by a fresh water crocodile. When you go to Fox River you can see all the crocodile tracks.”
Walkabout (Mongel Plain and Fox River, desert flowers, bush turkeys and dangerous crocodiles), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 160 cm MM7614) | $ 6700
This painting depicts a bird warning all the other animals that a crocodile is coming.
Walkabout (bird warning of crocodile), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm
$5400
This painting depicts Fox River. “I like to put pretty colours in my painting. You can see emu and its baby and a goanna. You see big mob out there, they come out in cold weather country time. It’s a Tabletop and when you go out to Fox River it’s plains (flat) country.”
| MM7617 |
Fox River (landscape, emu and baby with goanna), 2018, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm
$5400
This painting depicts birds at Fox River. “Through the top of painting witchetty grubs are also depicted. There is also a crocodile swimming downstream, and one turkey near rocks at Fox River.”
Walkabout – Fox River (birds, witchetty grubs, crocodiles, bush turkey), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm | MM7615 | $5400
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The paradisical world of JANET DREAMER
In partnership with Yarliyil Arts
February 8-March 2, 2025