Roseanne Morton Petyarre / Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming (RM844)

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 the Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, an important ancestral story passed down to her by her late mother, Gracie Morton Pwerle. Through this work, Roseanne continues a cultural and artistic tradition that has been carried through generations of women in her family.

The Dreaming tells of an Old Woman Mountain Devil Lizard who travelled across the vast Atnangker Country during the ancestral creation period. As she moved through the landscape, she shaped the land, established sacred places and left behind pathways that remain embedded in Country. Her journey connects important sites and holds knowledge relating to ceremony, identity and the continuing relationship between people and the land.

Roseanne represents these travels through a network of sweeping, interwoven forms that move across the canvas like pathways through Country. The circular motif may be understood as an important place or gathering site, while the layered fields of fine dots create a sense of the textured earth, vegetation and shifting surface of the landscape. Areas of white and warm ochre appear to trace the Mountain Devil Lizard’s movement, giving the composition a strong feeling of rhythm and continuous travel.

The Mountain Devil Lizard is not only an ancestral being from the Dreaming. It remains a living presence on Country, still moving through the landscape and carrying the story into the present. By painting this Dreaming, Roseanne honours the knowledge entrusted to her by Gracie and ensures that her mother’s cultural legacy continues through a new generation.