Katherine Marshall Nakamarra

Katherine Nakamarra Marshall was born on 13th January 1968 in the Pintupi country of Papunya .  She is a master of colour and the fine application of dots to overlay sacred-secret imagery. She is a favourite among collectors and art lovers alike. She comes from a family of highly acclaimed artists. Her parents Walangkura and Johnny Yungut Nakamarra passed their Dreamtime stories onto Katherine and her sisters, the respected Papunya Tula artists Lorraine Nakamarra Yungut and Debra Nakamarra Young. A new level of sophistication and dynamism has grown in the work of these women.

Similarities can be seen between Katherine’s work and the bold style of other Papunya Tula artists.  This is especially evident in the way the paint is applied in thick, joined dots. Katherine, however, has developed her own palette of colours and personal way of representing the iconography to depict the traditional sacred women’s sites in the Kintore area, located 250km west of her birthplace. Two of the sites that form the subject of Katherine’s paintings are Muruntji and Tjintjin.

In her works, the concentric circles represent the important ceremonial sites for Katherine and her ancestors, while the connecting lines between the circles represent the ancient travelling paths that link these sites. The early works of the male painters was primarily made up of shimmering Iines symbolising the pathways and journeys of the creation the Tingari ancestors. This generation of artists breathe new life into this seminal school of  Australian art which began at Papunya in the early seventies.

View Katherine at work in her homelands.

If you would like to purchase any of Katherine’s works email helen@emuapple.com.au