"Bush Plum Seeds" by Roseanne Morton

Size: 128 x 96 cm

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Commissions Available

Roseanne Morton Petyarre is a talented emerging artist in the world of contemporary aboriginal art. She was born in 1984 at Boundary Bore in Utopia, approx. 280km northeast of Alice Springs, Northern Territory and had a traditional upbringing, attending school at Utopia so she could stay close to family.

Roseanne’s mother is renowned artist Gracie Morton Pwerle. Gracie started to paint on batik in the 1980’s along with her mother Myrtle Petyarre and Aunties Gloria, Kathleen, Violet, Nancy and Ada Bird Petyarre (all international artists).

Roseanne learned from a young age the art of painting her dreamings, ceremonies and important bush foods onto canvas by watching her mother, aunties, and grandmothers.
Roseanne continues to live at Utopia with her husband, Papunya artist, James Morris, and their two children. A lovely lady with immense talent, this third-generation artist will no doubt have a long and successful career.

The Story of the Bush Plum Dreaming

Roseanne's paintings are borne from traditional knowledge and her confident approach to painting is evident in the way she assembles the images of the bush seeds, piling dots over each other to create a dense surface using a rich palette of color. Gracie’s subject matter is drawn from acute observation and memory. There is an intimate knowledge of country, blended with personal history and ancestral journey.

The Bush Plum Dreaming Story is a big story that spreads right across the western and central deserts from Lajamanu and Warlpiri country to the Utopia homelands.

The Bush Plum Dreaming or Creation Story from the Utopia region goes like this: In the Dreamtime, winds blew from all directions carrying the bush plum seed to the artists’ ancestral lands. The first bush plum of the Dreamings grew and bore fruit and dropped more seeds. Many winds blew the seeds all over the Dreaming lands.

To ensure the continued fruiting of this plant each season, the Aboriginal people pay homage to the spirit of the bush plum by painting about it and recreating it in their ceremonies through song and dance. The patterns in the paintings celebrate the Bush Plum work on many levels: they represent the fruit of the plant, its leaves, and flowers and also the body paint designs that are associated with it during the ceremony.