Edna Dale / Wandjina Rock Art

Edna grew up travelling Country with her father, the respected Ngarinyin elder and painter Jack Dale Mengenen, learning about Law and the Wandjina sites around Imintji and Bell Gorge. For years she helped prepare his brushes and canvases, and only began painting seriously as his health declined, coming into her own as an artist around 2012.

Her Wandjina have strong outlines and restrained detail, giving them a striking graphic presence that is clearly her own. Edna is Chairperson of the Imintji community and encourages other Ngarinyin people to paint and share their stories. She has shown at the Kimberley Art Prize and Darwin Art Fair, and now often paints alongside her daughter Petrina Bedford Dale.