Collection: Ada Pula Beasley

"I do painting to look back on the old days when we went hunting. My Mum took us out looking for bush medicine and yams and goanna. I learned about painting by looking at the flowers and trees in the swap area around Ampilatwatja where the bush flowers bloom in lots of colours. It's good for my kids to look at my paintings and learn about our ways." 

Ada Pula Beasley is an Epenarra artist known for her vibrant depictions of Alyawarr Country. Ada’s work is notable for her use of a dabbing technique, employed to create many brief, hazy strokes, sometimes layered with heavy dots, that coalesce to form trees, shrubs and flowers. Ada's pallet is influenced by flowers local to Alyawarr Country which sits at the foothills of Ilytwelepenty (the Davenport Ranges). Notable for her bold use of colour, in particular greens and yellows, Ada's paintings often capture the desert in the springtime, when rain comes, casting the local flora vivid green and blanketing the red dirt in abundant wildflowers.

Ada’s landscapes sit at a crossroads between representational and abstract. Her rhythmic mark making refers to light and colour, a response to environmental changes observed over the course of the day or the year. Ada’s focus on light and colour over form recall an Impressionistic style while her use of repetitive layers of heavy dabbing draws influence from the greats of the nearby Utopia homelands.  

Ada began her career with the Artists of Ampilatwatja before she moved to the nearby community of Epenarra, also known as Wutunugurra, here she continues to paint with the Epenarra Artists and remains an important artist in the Barkly region.