Eddie Blitner / Mimi Spirits

Eddie, whose bush name is Taiita, first learned by sitting beside his grandfathers Fred, Gerry and Donald as they ground ochres and painted bark, until they let the children fill in the edges. Later he worked as a stockman at Victoria River Downs and lived across the Katherine and East Kimberley regions.

His paintings are busy with overlapping life: brolgas, magpie geese, barramundi, turtles and crocodiles, often in X-ray style, alongside Mimi figures, hunting scenes and corroboree. Precise rarrk in red, yellow, black and white gives each form pattern and movement. He is also a woodcarver and yidaki maker, won first prize at the Barunga Festival in 1999 and was a finalist in the 1998 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.