Roseanne Morton Petyarre / Bush Medicine Leaves (RM804)

Roseanne Morton Petyarre is a rising talent in the world of contemporary Aboriginal art. Born in 1984 at Atneltye (Boundary Bore), in the Utopia region approximately 280km north-east of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Roseanne was raised in a traditional way and attended school locally so she could remain close to her family and community.

She comes from a renowned family of artists. Her late mother, Gracie Morton Pwerle, was a highly respected artist and a senior custodian of the Anwekety (Bush Plum) Dreaming. Gracie began painting in the 1980s on batik alongside her mother, Myrtle Petyarre, and her sisters — Roseanne’s aunties — Gloria, Kathleen, Violet, Nancy, and Ada Bird Petyarre. All are internationally celebrated artists whose work helped bring the Utopia region to global attention.

From a young age, Roseanne absorbed the cultural knowledge and artistic skills passed down through her mother, aunties, and grandmothers. She paints the Anwekety (Bush Plum) Dreaming, just as her mother did — a story of deep cultural significance involving ceremony, ancestral connections, and the seasonal cycles of this important bush food.

Roseanne’s paintings are composed of flowing brushstrokes that depict the bush plum leaves scattered across Country. The layered movement and colour variations in her work represent the shifting stages of the plant’s life cycle — from the fruiting of the bush plum to the changing colours of its leaves throughout the seasons.

Roseanne lives at Utopia with her husband, Papunya artist James Morris, and their two children. Gentle and immensely talented, she is proudly continuing the artistic traditions of her family and community. With her strong cultural foundation and growing recognition, Roseanne is poised for a long and successful career.

In this painting, Roseanne Morton Petyarre depicts Bush Medicine Leaves, a story connected to the traditional plant knowledge of the women from her family’s Country in the Utopia region.

For generations, Aboriginal women have gathered native plants for both food and medicine. The leaves may be crushed, soaked, boiled or mixed with animal fats to create treatments for cuts, wounds, bites, rashes, aches and other ailments. This knowledge includes an understanding of where the plants grow, when they are ready to be collected and how they should be prepared, and has been carefully passed down through families.

Roseanne paints the leaves using fine, repeated brushstrokes that gather and flow across the canvas. The small leaf forms radiate, overlap and change direction, creating a strong sense of movement, as though the leaves are being carried and turned by the wind across Country. The shifting colours reflect the changing appearance of the plants and landscape through the seasons.

The intricate patterning also gives the work a sense of abundance and regeneration. Each individual leaf becomes part of a larger rhythm, reflecting the continuing cycle of growth, gathering, preparation and renewal.

Through her Bush Medicine Leaves paintings, Roseanne honours the healing knowledge passed down by the women of her family. Her finely layered style draws upon the celebrated artistic tradition of her mother and aunties while remaining distinctly her own.