Jill Jack Paintings

Jill Jack (bush name Tjunjun) was born at Christmas Creek around 1955. Her parents had been part of the large desert migrations of the 1940′s and 1950′s, where people moved north towards the cattle station country of the Fitzroy Valley.

Jill Jack’s mother came from Japingka Waterhole in Walmajarri country, and had travelled north with her first, older husband. Her father came from Wirnpa in Wangkajunga country, and travelled via the Canning Stock Route to Balgo, before moving west to Christmas Creek.

Jill Jack grew up with two brothers at Christmas Creek, where she worked for a time at the station homestead. Her children, two daughters, have also lived all their lives at Christmas Creek, which became the location where Wankatjungka Community was established during the 1980′s.

Jill Jack began painting in 2003 for the Wangkatjungka Arts Project organised by Japingka Gallery. Jill Jack paints elements of her ancestral homelands through stories she has inherited from her mother and father’s country. Jill Jack’s work has generated a great deal of interest right from her earliest paintings, based largely on her harmonious use of colour and assured technique.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2004 Jila & Tali – Waterholes and Sandhills, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2004 Striking Colours of the Living Desert – Wankatjungka Country, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2004 Artists of Wangkatjungka – Stories of Country, Raintree Gallery, Darwin, NT
2004 Tali and Jila, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2005 Yirmpurr (Living Water) Recent Paintings from Wangkatjungka, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2005 “Big Country” Gallery Gondwana,  Alice Springs Northern Territory
2005 Wangkatjungka, Ladner and Fell Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2005 Wangkatjungka Artists: Stories from The Great Sandy Desert, Tandanya, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Adelaide, SA
2006 Wangkatjungka- Artists of the Great Sandy Desert, ART MOB, Hobart
2006 Wangkatjungka Group Exhibition, Helen Maxwell, ACT
2007 Wangkatjungka Mapping Country, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2007 Desert Mosaic, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2008 Wangkatjungka Artists: Canning Stock Route, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2009 Desert Rains – Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2010 Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA