Nada Rawlins Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1936 -

Nada Rawlins was born about 1936 near Kirriwirri, in the southern stretches of Wangkatjungka country, in Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. This country incorporates Percival lakes, a chain of salt lakes running for hundreds of kilometers across the desert. The traditional owners, including Nada’s family and relatives, were custodians of this country and knew the sources of fresh water, which were often located within the salt lakes.

Nada says of her early life: “I was born in the desert in the bush. My mother never put me in a blanket. I never saw my father. Another father grow me up. We came from the desert along the Canning Stock Route when I was a young girl. We walked through Billiluna. After I lived with my family at Moola Bulla. Then we walked alongside the river to Christmas Creek. We had no motorcar – carried everything – swag, billycan, sticks, on our heads. Three mothers and an old man. Elsie Thomas and I worked together get firewood, cook damper. No kids, we look after old people. I been sick one.”

Nada Rawlins lived in Fitzroy Crossing and at Wangkatjungka Community. She is renowned for the atmospheric abstract landscapes of her country that she paints in large areas of saturated colour. Nada Rawlins is represented widely in National and State art gallery collections and private collections.

Nada Rawlins has exhibited her works extensively since 1991 and her paintings have been included in many exhibitions at Japingka Gallery including-

2010 Wangkatjungka Artists
2009 Kids and Mentors
2009 Desert Rains – Wangkatjungka Artists
2008 Wangkatjungka Artists: Canning Stock Route
2007 Desert Mosaic
2007 Wangkatjungka Mapping Country
2004 Tali and Jila – Sandhills and Waterholes
2003 Artists of Wangkatjungka – From the Great Sandy Desert

A selection of paintings by Nada Rawlins is available from Japingka Gallery, where collectors can buy Aboriginal art online with certainty of quality, authenticity and provenance of art works.