Biography:
"Painting is my life"
“I was born in Newman, but then we moved to Jigalong when I was a baby. We moved out from there to all the other communities when I was a kid. I lived in Punmu, Parnngurr, Kunawarritji. Went to school there, that’s where I grew up, all the communities. I always go back between them, Jigalong, Parngurr, Punmu, because I got family in those communities.
Long time ago, a school teacher, he was an old man, ‘Big Mac’ we called him and his brother was ‘Old Mac’, he saw me doing some drawing and came to me and said; “You know, if you’re interested in art I’ll show you something.” He went to the computer room in Punmu and typed in an artist’s name- Albert Namatjira. That was the first time I saw his paintings. My teacher told me “This man is not alive today, he’s from way back.” I was thinking - that’s impossible for a man of his time! Seeing his paintings made me think, if he can do it, I’ll try it. I started landscape first, but I didn’t do really good ones. My uncle Jason Tinker he knew how to do landscape. He taught me how to mix all the colour and how to see the distance properly. I was painting landscapes for a long time because that’s what my uncle was doing, so I had to learn with him.
The first portrait I did was drawing my teacher, just for fun without her looking during the classes. She didn’t know till I showed her the drawing- she felt good when I showed her, she was happy. That gave me a little bit of feeling- confidence. Then I went to Jigalong – that’s when all the old people had started painting in 2006 [with the inception of Martumili Artists]. I was with them, I was the only young fella. We was painting on the other side of the creek, in the sun. Made a colour, put it on the ground and paint right there. I was doing faces, skies. I was just looking at people and trying to paint them without a photo.
I left it for a while, maybe ten, eleven years. I thought it was wasting time, painting portraits and all that. I thought no one’s interested in art, portraits, but then someone in the family told me “You’re the only one in the tribe doing a realistic portrait.” I never seen it that way before. Just that one word made me go back to painting. I never knew anyone was watching, especially everyone here, the whole town was talking about it, the Martu and a few white people. I painted myself first, just to see if I could still do it. Then I painted Bamba [Corban Clause Williams], then Peter Tinker. I asked them if I could paint. Now people ask me to paint them.
I feel good. I feel like, it’s hard to explain. Every time I come here [ to the Martumili Artists gallery], first thing I go do is to look at my paintings on the wall. I feel proud for myself, ‘cause before I was wasting time, but I see not only am I making a difference for me, but young people too. They wanna do something too.”
- Owen Biljabu
