Julie Woods
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About the Artist
Julie Woods is a Pitjantjatjara artist born at Irrunytju, also known as Wingellina, in Western Australia. She grew up across the border at Kanpi in the APY Lands of South Australia, where her family has strong cultural and family connections. Julie later attended Yirara College in Alice Springs and now lives with her family at Mutitjulu, near Uluru.
Julie is the daughter of artist Elaine Woods and granddaughter of highly regarded senior Pitjantjatjara artist Maringka Baker. She is one of four sisters, together with Janice, Venita and Casseyanne Woods, all of whom have continued their family's painting tradition. Through her grandmother and mother, Julie grew up surrounded by Tjukurpa, knowledge of Country and a strong tradition of women painting together and passing cultural knowledge between generations. Her extended family also includes her great-uncle, the highly respected senior Pitjantjatjara artist and ngangkari Jimmy Baker.
Julie learned to paint from her grandmother Maringka and inherited important stories connected to Maringka's Country around Irrunytju. Among these are Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa, the story of two ancestral sisters travelling through Country, and knowledge associated with Ku Ala, an important women's place south of Irrunytju.
Minyma Kutjara has become one of the central subjects of Julie's paintings. In the story, an older sister is travelling with her younger sister, taking her north through Country towards their homeland at Kaltukatjara, or Docker River. The younger woman had been separated from her family for a long time and did not recognise the Country through which they travelled. As they journeyed together, her older sister taught and reassured her, sharing knowledge of Country and stopping at important places along the way.
At Ilkuwaratjara the sisters cut a wana, or digging stick, from a straight piece of punu. As they travelled they hunted and dug for kuka, including goanna, before continuing through Country. The younger sister became homesick and reluctant to continue, but her older sister comforted her and encouraged her onward, telling her that she was taking her home to meet her family. At different places the women stopped for Inma, ceremonial singing and dancing, through which knowledge was taught and remembered. They camped at Punuwara and the Irrunytju rockhole before travelling further north to Kaltukatjara.
Julie translates this journey into richly patterned paintings in which pathways, rockholes and areas of Country are brought together across the canvas. Repeated lines flow between circular forms and fields of intricate dotting, creating a sense of movement through the landscape. In some works the familiar U-shaped forms represent the travelling women, while circles mark rockholes and places where water gathers after rain.
Although Julie shares this Tjukurpa with her mother, grandmother and sisters, she has developed a distinctive visual language of her own. Her paintings often use sweeping linear forms and broad pathways that move through densely worked areas of colour. Her palette can shift dramatically between warm desert tones and vivid contemporary combinations of blue, green, pink, purple and red, allowing each painting to present a different interpretation of the same enduring journey.
Painting within such a strong multigenerational family has also encouraged collaboration. In 2018 Julie joined her mother Elaine and sisters Janice and Venita as the Woods Collaborative for Desert Mob in Alice Springs. Together they created a large Minyma Kutjara painting measuring almost two metres across, bringing several individual approaches to their shared family Tjukurpa into a single work.
Julie has also brought her imagery beyond the traditional canvas. Designs based on her paintings have been reproduced through ethical cross-cultural projects on textiles, homewares and other objects, extending her distinctive patterns and Minyma Kutjara imagery to a wider audience while maintaining the artist's connection to the original designs.
Julie continues to paint the stories and Country passed to her through her grandmother and mother, carrying an important family tradition into another generation while developing a contemporary style recognisably her own.
Current local time at Gallery
Opening Hours
Saturday: 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Sunday: Closed
Call Us
1300 362 551 
+61 8 9168 1881
Current local time at Gallery
-
Mon - Fri: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
Opening Hours
Saturday: 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Sunday: Closed -
Call Us
1300 362 551
+61 8 9168 1881
10 Papuana St, Kununurra,
Western Australia, 6743 Australia
