Born in Napperby Creek, probably in the ’30s, he grew up around Napperby station, on his traditional Anmatyerre country. Like his younger 'brother’ Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, he had such skill at wood carving that his name was already known in Central Australia as a brilliant craftsman before the painting movement began in Papunya. From Narwietooma station, where he had worked as a stockman, he moved to Papunya with his wife Daisy Leura, and their young family when the construction program for the new settlement began. When painting started up, he presented himself to Geoff Bardon and asked to paint. The two men became friends, and from this position Tim Leura played a leading role in the emerging painting enterprise, including his enlistment of his 'brother’ Clifford to the group of artists. Geoff Bardon’s 1991 book, Papunya Tula: Art of the Western Desert, contains a detailed map drawn by the artist showing his Dreaming area and the sites of the Possum, Yam, Fire, Blue Tongue Lizard, Sun, Moon and Morning Star and other Dreamings which were the subject of his paintings. His 27’ (8.2 m) Napperby Death Spirit (Possum) Dreaming (painted in 1980 with assistance from Clifford Possum) was the centrepiece of the Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia exhibition which toured the USA in 1988-9, and is increasingly cited as one of the greatest paintings of the movement. The painting of Warlugulong, 1976 (Art Gallery of NSW) with his brother Clifford is documented in the BBC documentary Desert Dreamers of that year. He died in 1984 after a long illness.
- Writers:
- Johnson, Vivien
Note: primary biographer
- Date written:
- 1994
- Last updated:
- 2011
