Born circa 1960, Bessie Purvis Petyarre is an emerging artist from Utopia, an area known for its respected artists that is located 240 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Following in her mother Polly Ngale’s footsteps, Bessie depicts the dreamings of the Atnwelarr and Kame (the pencil yam) and the Anwekety (bush plum), traditional stories and knowledge that have been passed down to her.
Anwekety is the Anmatyerre word for conkerberry (or conkleberry), a sweet black berry that is favoured by desert aboriginals. They only grow on the plant (Carissa lanceolata ) for a few weeks of the year, however the aboriginals collect plenty of them and store them dry, soaking them in water again before being consumed. This fruit looks very similar to a plum, which is why it is often referred to in English by the Anmatyerre people as ‘bush plum’. There is a Dreamtime story for the Anwekety that belongs to the people of Ahalpere country in the Utopia Region. This means that anyone belonging to this country can be taught it and hold ceremonies to ensure its productivity. In the Dreamtime, winds blew from all directions, carrying the anwekety seed over the ancestors’ land, in Ahalpere country. The first anwekety of the Dreamings then grew, bore fruit and dropped more seeds. Many winds blew the seeds all over the Dreaming lands.
Working in a similar way to her mother and her highly regarded aunt, Kathleen Ngale, Bessie creates her Anwekety paintings by building up layer upon layer of colour to create multi-dimensional images. Her use of vibrant colours create a dynamic aspect to the paintings, whilst the combination of heavy and finer brushwork form subtle layers of blended tones that create visual shifts within the works.
