Biography:
Justina Willis was born in Leigh Creek in South Australia in 1981. Her dad was from Adelaide. Her mother was Yindjibarndi from the Millstream Tableland Country and lived in Roebourne. The family moved from Adelaide to Broome and Justina attended primary school and high school there. Her love for art started in high school where she experimented with different styles and art forms. Justina travelled between Broome and Roebourne a lot and then came to live permanently in Roebourne in about 1999 and has been here ever since.
She started doing art late in 2006 at the back of the Pilbara Aboriginal Church with her family. She went with her young kids and started sketching, drawing and painting. One day someone came and bought an art piece and this inspired her to keep painting.
“I love painting. It gives me great pleasure to see the finished work."
Justina has a unique painting style. She meticulously plans her work to achieve the effect and composition she desires, painting fine stroke and dot work over an abstract under base of the rich colours that are prevalent in the Pilbara. Justina approaches her paintings with precision and detail, using a layering technique and sometimes uses optical colour mixing to create a third dimension to her work. She can work for hours, days and often weeks on one piece.
Justina and her family like to go out bush every weekend to spend time at places like Green Pool and Millstream. The bush and the colours of the Country provide the inspiration for Justina's paintings. She particularly loves to paint the Pilbara hills, as it reminds her of the place she lives, and where she is from. The shapes and bright colours of her Pilbara hills have become part of her signature style.
"I like to paint because I go out bush a lot and I can express the experience of going bush in my paintings"
Justina has recently begun her pottery journey and enjoys crafting vessels with clay. She brings her careful painting style to her vessels.
