Design and Art Australia Online

Now in her late 50s, Polly Watson was born in the early 1930’s at Mt Doreen station: she remembers the start of World War II when she was a young girl. Her country is Mt Doreen/Yuendumu and she is a Warlpiri speaker. She paints Mouse Dreaming and Maliki, a black bush berry. She previously lived at Mt Doreen, but has been in Alice Springs for the past twenty years, and now resides with the Hidden Valley community. She began painting in about 1984, at the same time as the other Hidden Valley artists, with whom she still works, including April Spencer Napaltjarri and Rosie FLEMING Nangala. Her cousin Rene ROBINSON taught her how to paint. Her daughter, Susie Nangala is just learning to paint too. Polly’s work was included in the Centre for Aboriginal Artists shows at Blaxland Gallery and the Tin Sheds. In 1990 she won the Centralian Advocate Art Award, and in 1991 a major commission for an exhibition at the Australian Embassy in Paris.

Writers:

Johnson, Vivien

Date written:

1994

Last updated:

2011