Marie Ryder / Women Gathering Wild Figs (MR73)

Marie Ryder was born in 1966 and grew up at Santa Teresa community, approx. 80 kilometres south east of Alice Springs. Marie is the eldest child of senior artist Therese Ryder and has eight younger brothers and sisters.

After watching her mother paint and observing her techniques Marie started painting when she was in her early 20’s and developed her own style. Her paintings are a celebration of the bush foods from Central Australia. They are highly representational using rich colours to depict her country.

Marie is married to artist Kevin Bird Mpetyane (grandson of the late Ada Bird Petyarre) and they live in Kevin’s country in the Utopia Region, NE of Alice Springs with their children and grandchildren.

Marie’s work is held in private collections both within Australia and overseas. She has also been represented in many group exhibitions.

Marie paints women gathering a variety of bush foods found across Central Australia. The women are represented through ‘U’ shaped symbols, accompanied by traditional tools such as digging sticks and coolamons, which are used for collecting and carrying food to share within the community.

Concentric circles indicate the place where the gathering occurs, while the use of earthy ochre tones reflects the colours of Central Australia’s sandhill Country.