Ada Pula Beasley
Barkly Regional Arts“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 Beasley began her career with the Artists of Ampilatwatja before she moved to the nearby community of Epenarra where she continues to paint with the Epenarra artists and remains an important artist of the Barkly region. Ada has unique painting style within the Artists of the Barkly collective, using a dabbing technique to create many brief, hazy strokes that coalesce to form trees, shrubs and flowers in soft colours. Ada’s pallet continues to be influenced by the years she spent with the Artists of Ampilatwatja and is notable for the bold use of bright colours, in particular greens and yellows. Ada’s paintings often capture the desert in the springtime, when rain comes and blankets the red dirt in brilliant wildflowers and the local flora turns a vivid green.
