Makinti Napanangka:
Born: c 1930
Area: Lake MacDonald
Language: Pintupi

**2008 - Winner of the Telstra National Aboriginal and Islander Art Award

There are two periods to the work of this artist, born c1930 in the Lake MacDonald region of the Northern Territory: Before she had her cataracts operated on, Makinti Napanangka painted balls of wool. After the successful repair to her eyes she began to paint skeins of wool, in yellow ochre, white and often with Prussian blue accents. In the larger works the skeins look like willie willies, vortices, elephant trunks funneling upwards. Within a loose, very free style there is a fine sense of design: apparently arbitrary sets of parallel lines set one another off, by change of direction, or by incursions of red or blue. Against the precision of Papunya art, Makinti stands out for the fluid, the changing- and even in some paintings for pure muck up areas. The painterly muck ups are not mistakes, but have a reason, if one looks hard. Some of her best paintings- as here- are the very essence of calm.
She was introduced to acrylic painting in 1995 as a member of the Haasts Bluff-Kintore painting project conducted at Kintore. Makinti's paintings are often the stories of the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women), Ancestor figures whose travels cover great distances from Pitjantjajara country, then north east through to and beyond Haasts Bluff and Papunya. Such journeys include numerous ceremonial sites, ceremonial activities and food gathering.

Makinti's images often comprise hairstring skirts (these skirts are woven by the women from human hair using a simple spindle made of two sticks) and belts worn by women in ceremonies, shown as sets of lines varying in hue and density, usually in bold yellows and oranges, alternating with white. These works are cheerful and free flowing, intensified at times by the addition of a stray grey-blue line, or a patch of crimson red or purple.

Makinti is not concerned with neatness, or the painstaking 'dot by dot' approach of others. Her bands of lines form into sweeping arcs, creating patterns that twist and bend. She is very different even to her Pintupi contemporaries.
Makinti Napanangka's work is highly sought after and is represented in major public and private collections.
50 Most Collectable ‘Art Collector Magazine’ March 2003/ 2004/ 2006
Makinti won the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award in 2003.