Vanessa Inkamala, Glen Helen Gorge - Morning time, 39x27.5cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Vanessa Inkamala
• Community - Hermannsburg
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre
• Catalogue number - WAC116-23
• Materials - Watercolours on watercolour paper  
• Painted Size(cm) - H27.5 W39
• Postage variants - Artwork posted flat unframed
• Orientation - As displayed

Landscape of Glen Helen Gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Vanessa was born in 1968 at Ntaria (Hermannsburg), a mission established by German Lutheran missionaries at the end of the 19th century. Vanessa’s grandmother’s brother is Albert Namatjira and she is the niece of award-winning artist Ivy Pareroultja. Ivy remembers nursing Vanessa and her brother Reinhold Inkamala (also a painter at Iltja Ntjarra) in Hermannsburg.

Vanessa currently lives in Alice Springs and paints in the watercolour tradition. She paints the landscape of her ancestors, which is also the country she belongs to.   

In her late 20s Vanessa married Fabien, an Eastern Arrernte man, and moved to Santa Teresa, some 80 km South-West of Alice Springs. Though Vanessa was already a skilled artist, she learnt and adopted a new artistic style specific to Santa Teresa, in which she paints spiritual women. The spiritual women who are the subjects of Vanessa’s work are guardians of the land and remain invisible most of the time. Often, they look after a network of waterholes alongside the riverbed. If intruders come stealing some of the country resources such as bush tucker or water, the spiritual women will come out and the offenders will disappear forever.

Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre is proudly Aboriginal owned and directed. It is the home of the Namatjira watercolour artists. The Art Centre was established by Ngurratjuta/Pmara Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation and started operating in 2004, as a not-for-profit Art Centre to provide a place for Arrernte Artists to come together to paint, share and learn new techniques and ideas. The Art Centre is strongly committed to improving economic participation of Aboriginal people and maintaining cultural heritage.

Iltja Ntjarra has a special focus on supporting the ‘Hermannsburg School’ style watercolour artists, who continue to paint in the tradition of their grandfather and relative, Albert Namatjira, arguably one of Australia’s most famous artists of the 20^th century. Albert Namatjira taught his children to follow in his unique style, who have since passed this knowledge on to their children, which has resonated in a legacy of watercolour artists in the Central Desert region. By continuing his legacy, these artists sustain an important piece of living history.

Iltja Ntjarra is proud of its ethical work practices and aims to return the greatest possible percentage of sales to the artist.

In June 2016, Iltja Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation (ICN 8426) was newly incorporated by the Arrernte Artists associated with the Art Centre and in August 2016, the Ngurratjuta/Pmara Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation transferred the not-for-profit Art Centre business to Iltja Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation.

Iltja Ntjarra acknowledges the role of Ngurratjuta/Pmara Ntjarra Aboriginal Corporation to the establishment and development of the Art Centre and thanks it for its ongoing support.

The things that are most important to us are:

• The watercolour painting style
• The watercolour painting style
• To welcome all landscape artists to paint with us
• To welcome and encourage youth to paint with us
• To pass down stories about our country and culture
• To teach about the legacy of the Hermannsburg School of Watercolour art movement
• To tell stories of learning from our grandfather and relative Albert Namatjira
• To support and keep culture strong
• To promote the effective and ethical sale of artworks
• To provide increased economic benefit directly to the artists through sales, professional development, exhibitions and marketing

Test courtesy, Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre