Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi

Jeannie Egan Nungurrayi was born in approximately 1948 at Yuendumu, 3 hours out of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Jeannie Egan is a Warlpiri woman whose Dreamings include Wanakiji (Bush Plum), Miinypa (Native Fuchsia), Yarumayi (White Ochre) and Parlukurlangu (Gaints).

In 1987, as a young woman Jeannie began painting for Warlukurlangu Artist in Yuendumu. Her initial style was distinctive which shared a strong narrative with boldly outlined basic earth colours. Remarkably, one month after her first exhibition with Warlukurlangu Artists in an exhibition in Melbourne she was awarded first prize in the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and the Rothman’s Foundation Award for best artwork in introduced media. From here she began participating exhibitions with Warlukurlangu Artists regularly with exhibitions throughout Australia.

In 1988 and 1989 her painting titled “Goanna Dreaming” was included in two separate exhibitions by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Central Art has two of her artworks displayed on our website which were painted in 2007. The first is titled “Rain Dreaming” and uses traditional iconography to recount the Dreamtime story of the Jangala men, who were rain makers. The men would sing songs to unleash giant storms. Jeannie uses symbols to illustrate Ngawarra (flood waters) and Muju (water soakages) throughout the painting. Her use of bold, thick lines in an array of contrasting pastels is mesmerising.

The second artwork depicts women’s ceremonies which are held at sacred sites around Yuendumu. The Warlpiri women embrace their ceremonies through song, dance and body painting – which typically occurs on the upper body, breasts and arms. This painting also uses thick, bold brush strokes, frequently used in Jeannie’s artworks. For this particular painting she has used a more traditional colour scheme in various tones of brown, white and red. These colours would have been available traditionally through grounding ochre rocks with water to create a natural paste. Again, Jeannie has used traditional iconography to depict the ceremonies carried out.

Jeannie’s artworks are held in many of Australia’s most noted collections as well as several international collections such as Akademie Der Kunst in Germany and Musee des Arts Africains et Oceaniens in France. Her artwork has been included in various exhibitions around Australia, particularly with her work through Warlukurlangu Artists.

For someone who has won various awards throughout her career her paintings are still relatively affordable and a solid investment for those looking to invest in Aboriginal art. I highly recommended Jeannie’s paintings are they are unique and even at the beginning of her career her style was acknowledged as distinctive and bold.