Janice Stanley Paintings

Janice Stanley is a Pitjantjatjara artist based in Pukatja in the APY Lands of South Australia. She is the third generation of Stanley women to create artwork that reflects the style and stories from Ernabella. Janice is an early career painter and ceramic artist who has evolved her own distinctive style and technique.  Her grandmother is founding artist and traditional healer Tjariya Stanley, and her aunts Alison Milyika Carroll and Renita Stanley are senior artists.

Janice’s paintings depict pantu, or salt lakes near Atilla, Mt Connor, a large table top outcrop that stands out from the flat desert surrounds. This area is a significant location for the Seven Sisters Creation Story. This story tells of seven sisters running across the country creating landforms in their wake. The story on the lands reflects the constellation story of the Pleiades as it passes above.

Although Janice does not show the sisters from this perspective, she imagines viewing the salt lakes from above. The flowing colours and seasonal changes in the appearance of the salt lakes are reflected in her paintings. Janice has exhibited consistently across Australia since 2016 and her work has exhibited in Europe in Brussels. The Australian Embassy in Zagreb in Croatia has Janice’s work in their collection.