Carlton Isaac Reid

Carlton Isaac Reid

Second eldest son to Cliff Reid, Carlton has painted a very serious dreaming story. In the story a father would go hunting and when he got back his son would tell lies such as that his mother and he had eaten a fat goanna while the father was out hunting. He had been lying many times, so much that his mother punished him, taking him away from his fathers country to never return again. The white lines represent the tracks of the boy over the sand dune country. This story has similarities to 'the boy that cried wolf', but a more ancient telling of the tale.

Carlton is a contemporary young man reflected by his painting style. Innovative with technique, using thick, bold brush strokes opting for a 3 inch brush while maintaining the cultural colours and ochres used traditionally. This technique is descriptive of the power he wants to push forward in his art. He strips back all the details and the important aspects and the power of the story remains. Carlton was brought up with strong bush memories, growing up in the then young Blackstone community. He is 32 years old, educated in the Blackstone school and he is now a strong leader in his community with contemporary ideas and concepts to better his community. Carlton Reid is a contemporary painter while maintaining cultural knowledge and power handed down to him as the next generation Papulankutja artists.

Narelle Holland

Narelle has painted country where the emu was hunted. The men would go to the rock hole to spear the emu, using stillness as their weapon. The first layer of paint marks the country and its landmarks, the second layer, a delicate layering of lush cream and white dotting depict the spinifex which camouflages the country. The men have been painted with the raw brush strokes contained in the first layer and the second laying of spinifex and dotting cloaks the men, keeping them hidden from the viewer and the Emu they hunt.

Paint 'Right Way'

Thomas Reid known to Blackstone as 'T.R.' has stepped up as a painter, taking on the rights to stories given to him by his father Cliff Reid. His father, the number one male artists in Blackstone with a solo show in August in Melbourne with William Mora Galleries and a very successful painter, paints what he knows. Cliff paints stories he was told and paints them 'his way', the same way they painted those stories on Singing Rock, the same way those paintings have been painted for many years, raw gestures, symbols, dreaming tracks of the elders and the beings from the dreaming. Thomas is the eldest son of Cliff and Ruby Reid, and the responsibilities of being the eldest are to remember the stories and tell them 'right way'. Cliff told his son 'paint slow way', to make every mark count. The figures will then have character, the lines will have meanings and the story will be told. The image shown here is of a tribal battle. One side is stronger than the other. The strong side have their spears held up high, the figures seem taller, bigger, just like he was told they were in the story. On the weak side some are dying, spears are pierced into their legs, stomachs and heads. The battle is carefully choreographed like a World War 2 Movie, the men falling down, younger warriors are fighting amongst their elders, and there is no hope, they will lose. Thomas tells us that the battle was fought in the dreaming, a battle to warn us of future wars and the seriousness of their consequences? A warning to future generations maybe? Dreaming stories tell us the 'right way to live'. As a human culture all over the world we haven't learned from our own fables and dreaming stories, but did Thomas' ancestors learn to live in peace and not war, did they listen to their own stories? All we can do is learn the 'right way' and hope that future generations are listening.

Nora Davidson Pic

Jennifer Mitchell

Title of painting: Minyma Kutjara

Jennifer was born in 1955 and is one of Blackstone's artistic Gems. Jennifer has been painting since 2008 and is a natural colourist and has a delicate touch with her unique dotting style. Over the course of the last five months I have witnessed Jennifer develop as a painter from strength to strength incorporating what works well in a work and finding new ways to strengthen what works. With this process of development Jennifer has created a unique style of painted dabbles with a brush which are overlaid with a delicate dotting from the sharp end of a stick. She paints the country, looking down from the sky, imagining the delicate dappling of the spinifex and grass overlaying the hardness of the rock surfaces beneath. You really do get a sense of flying over the country, looking down at the painting while standing above it, and you get the sense of wanting to 'jump in' to the country. Jennifer knows this country well, the clay pans, the hills, the dry creek beds and soaks and the sand dunes and with this knowledge she is transported back to country as she paints it from above. Painting is a way of life for Jennifer and day by day she crosses lines between painting country and visiting country and the two become one with the power of country being felt within the delicate dotting of her work.

AUSTRADE VISITORS

A hive of activity

The Blackstone Festival Begins!

The festivities have been wonderful. We have had many visitors and volunteers arrive. There has been a cloths stall and Beauty salon run by the ladies from Wiluna Community. They have also provided their amazing large geen 4WD Bus for the dancing activities lead by Jodie Lane from Margaret river. We had many smiling faces crammed into the bus as they disappeared for well over 4 hrs of dancing and 'painting up'.

The glass blowers have been the usual hit with the kids lining up for a go. Our performance Artists of the 'Melting pot Crew' have also been busy entertaining establishing group participation with the school performance program.

Today will be a big day with the arrival of the DESART MOB from Alice Springs as well as visiting art centres for Art centre talks and discussion, also Desart will be hosting the wednesday night Community BBQ!!!

Another highlight today will be the anticipated visit from the 'Clown Doctor' (rumour has it that we was trained by Patch Adams himself).

The energy levels of the community have been well on the 'up' and we hope to continue the happiness levels of our community well into the next week with many more festivities to go - with a Movie night, Disco Night and sports events on the weekend will finish off the event.

Many Happy Blackstone Festival Returns to ALL!

Glass Art - Festival Time 2009

Hello everybody. It has been a wonderful week here at Blackstone with the start of our annual Blackstone Festival. The images depicted here are close ups of our glass work activities. Our friends from Margaret river come out every year for the festival to teach kids and adults alike the wonderful craft of Glass Blowing. The colours are magical and the process is mesmerizing.