Christopher Churchill / Purnululu – Jaru to Kitja

Chris Churchill was born in Derby, Western Australia in 1974 and resides at Warmun Community, Turkey Creek, 200kms south of Kununurra in the East Kimberley region.  He is a Jaru (desert) skin man married to Lorraine Daylight, a talented Kitja artist from one of the best known First Generation Ochre Artist families.  They have six children. Chris works as an independent artist. He often stretches his own canvas, and paints from home or in Kununurra in house at Our Land Gallery.  He is also a wonderfully gifted carver, one of the few of his contemporaries carrying on this important tradition. 

He was fortunate to be taught ochre technique by the late Jack Britten, and this is obvious in Chris’ attention to detail in the basics of ochre blending for the execution of his artworks. However, Christopher is fiercely proud of his own style, albeit grateful to Jack and his other mentors. And like Jack he can sketch, he is a natural, he has all the talent and determination it takes to become a great artist.

He possesses a diversity of content – like the late Rover Thomas he is desert bred but able to also paint his wife’s country in the beautiful East Kimberley. He paints exclusively in ochre medium, sometimes thick and crusty, in other works much finer. His painting focuses on the land, from Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) to the country between Warmun and Kununurra to the north and Halls Creek to the south. His subject matter is often mapping – he paints roads and landmarks with precision – his style is distinctive and the ochre with which he goes to a great deal of trouble blending contrasts from pale pinks to strong red wine colours.

Everything indicates an incredible future for this young artist, he is dedicated and hardworking. In 2007 Chris’ works were included in the first Warmun Art Centre Exhibition to be held in New York – at the prestigious Ralph Pucci International Gallery.

Christopher is a young man with a great deal to offer the world of Aboriginal Art.

This is a painting of Purnululu to the east of Turkey Creek. It is commonly known as the Bungle Bungles. It is the most incredible country – big mountains in some parts, and small cone shaped mounds in the mini bungles. I have painted the big mountain country of Nyidbarriya from the Jaru desert side to the left with sandstone colouring – this is my country, going into the Kitja country in red which is much wetter, this is my wife Lorraine’s country. The colours of the land also change with the seasons.