CHARMAINE PWERLE
Charmaine Pwerle (b. 1975)
Aweley, 2015
30 x 30cm. Acrylic on Linen Canvas
ARTIST
Charmaine was born in Alice Springs in 1975. She has been surrounded all of her life by some of the most significant artists from Utopia in the Central Desert. Charmaine Pwerle is the daughter of Artist Barbara Weir and granddaughter of the famous artist Minnie Pwerle and is becoming one of the most sought after Australian Aboriginal artists living and working today.
Charmaine's main inspirations are the Atnwengerrp area and Awelye (women's ceremonies and body paint). The body designs are important and relate to each particular woman's dreaming. The ochre pigment is ground into powder form and mixed with charcoal and ash before being applied with a flat paddled stick or with fingers in raw linear and curving patterns.
Charmaine's art has garnered national and international recognition. Her works are held in esteemed collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and she has participated in numerous exhibitions worldwide. Notably, she was a finalist in the 2018 Paddington Art Prize and the 2021 Ravenswood Art Prize.
PAINTING
Charmaine's artwork primarily focuses on "Awelye," which refers to women's ceremonial body paint designs associated with ancestral Dreamtime stories of her country, Atnwengerrp. These linear patterns are traditionally painted onto the chest, breasts, arms, and thighs using powders made from red and yellow ochre, charcoal, and ash. The application is performed with a flat stick featuring soft padding or directly with fingertips. During these ceremonies, women sing songs linked to their Awelye, paint each other, and dance, demonstrating respect for their land and promoting the well-being and health of their community.
In her paintings, Charmaine translates these ceremonial designs onto canvas, employing bold and expressive brushstrokes that convey the movement and rhythm of the traditional body painting. Her compositions often depict the tracks made by her ancestors as they traversed the land in search of food and water, with semicircular shapes representing sandhills and valleys. Dark backgrounds in her work may symbolize the paths of fires that have swept across the terrain, while other elements can represent sacred sites and the presence of Dreaming spirits within the landscape.