Karen Napaljarri Barnes, Elephant, 76x76cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Karen Napaljarri Barnes
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1643/24
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H76 W76 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - As displayed 

Karen loves animals. She started painting budgerigars which is her dreaming. But now she also paints different animals that can be found around Yuendumu and Australia such as kangaroos, emus, crocodiles..and sometimes she has been commissioned to paint domestic animals such as chickens, dogs, cats, pigs, goats etc... She really enjoys painting this type of subject. 

Karen Napaljarri Barnes was born in Lajamanu, a remote Aboriginal community in semi-arid country on the edge of the Tanami Desert 1000km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She moved to Yuendumu, 700km south, after finishing school in Lajamanu, to be with her family. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre, since 2001. She is the grand-daughter of Warlukurlangus's famous artist Judy Napangardi Watson and they would sit together painting at the Art Centre every day when Karen first started painting. Karen paints the dreaming stories handed down to her by her family for generations of millenia, stories which come from Mina Mina, country west of Yuendumu of which her family are the custodians. She also paints Karnta Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming), Wakulyarri Jukurrpa (Wallaby Dreaming), Ngarlajiyi Jukurrpa (Bush Carrot Creaming). Karen loves sport, especially basketball and softball, and is an avid football spectator, barracking for Lajamanu.