Katherine Marshall Nakamarra

Katherine Marshall Nakamarra began painting in the mid 1980s, along with her sisters Debra Young Nakamarra and Lorraine Yungut Nakamarra. Painting with their mother, the highly-acclaimed Pintupi artist Walangkura Napanangka, the three sisters have inherited her stories and iconography for representing them.

Katherine’s father, Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, was also a successful Papunya Tula artist, as were her mother’s sister, Pirrmangka Napanangka, and her grandmother, Inyuwa Nampitjinpa.

Similarities can be seen between Katherine’s work and the bold style of the Papunya Tula movement. This is especially evident in the way the paint is applied in thick, joined dots. Katherine has developed her own palette of colours and her personal way of representing the iconography to depict the traditional sacred women’s sites in the Kintore area, located 250km west of her birthplace.

Katherine is most certainly a talented artist; her works are bold, culturally significant and create a sense of powerful energy.