Tommy Carroll / Dunham Hill (3B)

Tommy was born in 1956 at Doon Doon Station in the East Kimberley and worked as a stockman for many years. His knowledge of the country in which he worked is extensive and the pivotal focus of his paintings.

He is a natural – his style is strong, individual, balanced, striking. It is obvious that he has never followed in anyone’s footsteps – his works are most definitely by Tommy Carroll. The paintings flow with the landscape – from minimal yet precise black and white to vibrant reds and bright yellow to the softer black/brown/green of his grandfather, Paddy Carroll’s country.

He has participated in Solo and Group Exhibitions throughout Australia – his paintings have been acquired by important collectors, the National Gallery of Australia and the Parliament House Collection. Tommy’s works are popular world-wide, as many collectors from America, Germany and Holland have discovered and collected and continue to commission works by this now well established artist.

A man of few words, a focused, professional artist – minimal by style, not by market preference.

Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions

2012
• Mabel Juli & Tommy Carroll, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi

2009
• Ochre: A Study in Materiality, Short Street Gallery, Broome

2008
• East of East Kimberley, ReDot Gallery, Singapore

2007
• Ralph Pucci International Gallery, New York (in association with Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin)
• Greetings From Turkey Creek, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
• “From the ground up: Ochre work from the Kimberley”, Chapman Gallery, Canberra

2006
• Gentlemen of Warmun, Seva Frangos Art, Perth
• East Kimberley Artworks, Japingka Gallery , Perth
• Warmun Art Centre Presents, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney

2004
• Mabel Juli & Tommy Carroll, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney

2003
• Solo Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
• Recent Works by Warmun Artists, Framed Gallery, Darwin

2002
• Solo Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
• Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
• Colleen Carter, Tommy Carroll and Katie Cox, Span Gallery, Flinders Lane, Melbourne
• Collectors Show – in association with Seva Frangos, Span Gallery, Flinders St, Melbourne

2000
• Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra

Selected Collections
• Australian National Gallery, Canberra
• Parliament House Collection, Canberra
• Artbank, Sydney
• Broadmeadows Health Service Collection, Victoria

I have painted a large hill on Doon Doon Station. It was named after a family of whitefella’s who had lots of stations in the Kimberley early times – the Durack’s. The colours are in hot time, with the big hill looking black with no grass on it, the limestone country where the cattle graze looking red in the reflection of the hot summer sun all around Durack Hill. I mustered in this country for years – good country. Doon Doon is still a working cattle station, owned and worked by Aboriginal people now. The Goolarbool (Rainbow Serpent) is said to have made all the rivers, gaps through the mountains and big boulders as he travelled this country in the Ngarrangkarni (Dreamtime).