Bianca Nampijinpa Turner, Simpson Desert Flowers, 91x76cm

• Artist - Bianca Nampijinpa Turner
• Community - Nyirripi/Utopia
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1953/18ny
• Materials - Acrylic on linen 
• Size(cm) - H91 W76 D2 
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The Simpson Desert is the world’s largest sand dune desert, occupying approximately 176,500 square kilometres of dry, red sandy dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. Largely uninhabited, the dunes stretch as far as the eye can see featuring a wide variety of desert wildlife, extensive playa lakes, spinifex grasslands and acacia woodlands. But it is the witnessing of a spectacular colour show after the rains as the wildflowers bloom across the sand dunes, that draws visitors’ sighs of admiration.

After rains, are carpets of daisies (Asteraceae) extending as far as the eye can see. The dunes can be covered with fluorescent yellow with senecio daisys, and sparkling silver wild stock Blennodia canescens. There will be parakeelya (genus Calandrinia) which has bright purple flowers and succulent leaves that provided Aboriginal people with moisture. There will be areas covered with wild parsnip Trachymene glaucifoliaas well as billy buttons, bluebells, and the stunning poached egg daisy, Myriocephalus stuartii, with it yellow yolk and creamy white, fine bristles that are easily dispersed by the wind.

Bianca Nampijinpa Turner is an Anmatyerre woman, born in 1985 in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Her country is Sandy Bore, country located on the Eastern side of Stuart Highway, in Utopia lands. She went to the local school in Alice Springs before going to St John’s Catholic College in Darwin, a co-educational day and boarding community, for students from year seven to twelve.

Bianca has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2009. Yuendumu is a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west from Alice Springs. She mainly paints her grandmother’s Simpson Desert Flowers Jukurrpa (Dreaming). She uses traditional shapes and an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her land.

Bianca now lives with her husband in Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community 130 km north-west of Yuendumu. She married into the Gibson Family, many who are well-known artists painting with Warlukurlangu Art Centre. She enjoys painting her Simpson Desert Flowers, sitting with her husband’s family and her friends. When she is not painting, she enjoys hunting.