Feel earth with ochre
Nathan DyerThe Kimberley Echo
Fri, 18 March 2011 3:22PM
Sitting before a mortar and pestle and crushing ochre into a thin white powder, Nellie Gordon is doing what her people have done for millennia.
"The old people, they used to collect the ochre and carry it in a coolamon, and then use a flat stone to (crush) it…a long time ago," the renowned East Kimberley artist explains.
The 76-year-old, who paints for Kununurra gallery Red Rock Art, is preparing ochre for use in a painting workshop she is leading for her counterparts at Halls Creek's Yarliyil Art Centre.
Centre manager Jeannette Swan said the two-day workshop was an important professional development opportunity for her artists, many of whom normally paint in acrylic.
"Ochre is the traditional way of painting and the artists are very happy to be using it," Ms Swan said.
For artist and former stockman, Stan Brumby, who was born in the bush west of Halls Creek in the 1920s, using ochre provided a powerful connection to culture.
"In the bush we used white ochre, and the red one, and the yellow one … for ceremony," he said. "That red one is what they rub themselves with all over, head and all … it is very powerful.
"When I was a young fella living in the bush, I saw that happen."
Workshop attendee and artist, Bonnie Deegan, who has been painting with Yarliyil since the centre reopened last year after a five-year break, said ochre had a feel like no other medium.
"The ochre, when you crush it up and use it, it's a bit rough, not like acrylic, it's more like the earth, like the sand … it's wonderful," she said.
"And the other artists here think it is wonderful to be using ochre, because it comes from the earth."
Dating disasters inspire comedyPremium
'Painful' plan to keep divorcing couples togetherPremium