Aboriginal Art > Aboriginal Art Styles > East Kimberley Art

East Kimberley Art

East Kimberley Art represents one of the most important regional movements within Aboriginal Art Styles, encompassing both the ancient ceremonial traditions of the Kimberley and the internationally recognised East Kimberley painting movement that emerged during the 1970s. Best known for its monumental ochre paintings depicting aerial views of Country, ceremonial sites, and ancestral narratives, East Kimberley painting developed from earlier body painting traditions, sacred boards, and ceremonial dance objects associated with the Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) ceremony. Unlike Western Desert dot painting, East Kimberley artists used natural earth pigments to create simplified landscape abstractions grounded in the physical and spiritual presence of Kimberley Country.

The contemporary East Kimberley movement emerged through the collaboration of senior artists including Paddy Jaminji and Rover Thomas, whose painted ceremonial boards transformed Aboriginal Australian art during the late twentieth century. Paddy Jaminji painted many of the earliest Krill Krill boards depicting spirit journeys, sacred sites, and ancestral narratives, while Rover Thomas later developed these ceremonial forms into monumental ochre paintings that became internationally celebrated for their stark simplicity and spiritual power.

The success of the movement helped establish a new generation of major Kimberley artists including Paddy Bedford, Queenie McKenzie, Hector Jandany, and Jack Britten, each developing highly individual approaches while maintaining deep connections to ceremonial law and ancestral geography. Today Kimberley Art remains one of the most historically significant and visually distinctive movements within contemporary Aboriginal Australian art.

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Aboriginal dancers carrying painted Krill Krill boards during an East Kimberley ceremony

Early East Kimberley Krill Krill ceremonial board painted by Paddy Jaminji in natural ochres

East Kimberley Art and the Krill Krill Ceremony

The contemporary East Kimberley art movement emerged during the mid-1970s through the Gurirr Gurirr, or Krill Krill, ceremony associated with senior artist Rover Thomas. The origins of the ceremony are linked to the death of Rover Thomas’ aunt in a car accident near Turkey Creek in 1974. Following her death, Rover Thomas experienced a series of powerful dreams and spiritual revelations in which her spirit described a journey undertaken across the Kimberley after death.

These visions became the foundation for a new ceremonial song cycle and dance performance. The journey described sacred sites, spirit beings, and important locations visited during the spirit’s travels across Country. Senior artist Paddy Jaminji painted many of the earliest ceremonial boards associated with the ceremony using natural ochres on discarded building materials. These painted boards depicted the spiritual sites and ancestral forces encountered during the journey and were carried by dancers during the ceremonial performance.

One of the most dramatic episodes within the song cycle described the spirit journey continuing to Wyndham, where the spirit witnessed the destruction of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy, interpreted within the ceremony as an act of the Rainbow Serpent’s spiritual power.

The Gurirr Gurirr ceremony was first publicly performed in 1977 and rapidly spread throughout the Kimberley and into Arnhem Land. The painted dance boards created for the ceremony became the foundation of the contemporary East Kimberley painting movement and directly influenced the later works of Rover Thomas, Paddy Jaminji, and subsequent Kimberley artists.

Today early Krill Krill ceremonial boards are regarded as both historically important ceremonial objects and foundational works within the history of contemporary Aboriginal Australian art.

Kimberley Art: A New School of Australian Art

The ceremonial dance boards created for the Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) ceremony directly inspired the emergence of the contemporary East Kimberley painting movement. From the early 1980s onwards, Rover Thomas began adapting the visual language of the ceremonial boards into independent paintings, initially producing works closely related to the original Krill Krill imagery in response to growing commercial interest.

A pivotal moment occurred in 1981 when Mary Macha of Aboriginal Arts Australia travelled to Turkey Creek and encountered the Krill Krill boards for the first time. Recognising their extraordinary artistic power and originality, she purchased several works from Paddy Jaminji and encouraged further painting by supplying boards and materials. By 1983 Macha had become an independent agent working closely with Paddy Jaminji and the emerging Kimberley artists.

Inspired by his uncle’s success, Rover Thomas famously introduced himself to Mary Macha with the simple declaration: “Rover Thomas, I want to paint.” This marked the beginning of one of the most important artistic careers in contemporary Aboriginal Australian art.

In 1984 Macha brought Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji to Perth, where she converted her garage into a temporary studio and actively promoted their work. Although both artists soon returned to their communities in the East Kimberley, the success of their Perth exhibitions attracted increasing national attention and helped establish Kimberley painting as a major new movement within Australian art.

The success of Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji soon inspired a new generation of East Kimberley artists including Paddy Bedford, Queenie McKenzie, Hector Jandany, and Jack Britten, each developing highly individual interpretations of Kimberley ceremonial geography and ochre landscape painting.

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Rover Thomas ochre painting Two Men Dreaming depicting an ancestral spirit figure through East Kimberley ceremonial imagery and white dotted outlines.

Early East Kimberley Art

Early East Kimberley paintings were often executed on found materials such as builders board, plywood, or discarded construction panels rather than stretched canvas. These early works typically employ the classic Kimberley ochre palette of deep reds, browns, yellows, and blacks derived from the colours of the East Kimberley landscape itself. The surfaces are frequently rough and uneven, while the natural pigments and early binding agents can produce fragile, textured paint layers that age distinctively over time.

The earliest paintings by Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji remained closely connected to the ceremonial Krill Krill boards from which the movement emerged. As the commercial success of these pioneering artists grew during the 1980s, a new generation of East Kimberley painters began developing highly individual artistic approaches while still retaining the simplified forms, ochre palettes, aerial geography, and ceremonial foundations characteristic of early Kimberley painting.

By the late 1980s and 1990s many Kimberley artists increasingly adopted canvas as their primary medium. This transition allowed for larger and more durable works while helping establish East Kimberley painting as one of the major movements within contemporary Aboriginal Australian art.

How East Kimberley Art Differs from Western Desert Art

Although East Kimberley Art and Western Desert Art both emerged as major movements within contemporary Aboriginal Australian art during the late twentieth century, they developed from very different ceremonial traditions, landscapes, and artistic systems.

Western Desert painting is primarily based on symbolic mapping systems connected to Tjukurrpa (Dreaming law). These paintings often depict Country through aerial perspectives using concentric circles, journey lines, dense dotting, and highly codified iconography representing waterholes, campsites, ancestral tracks, and ceremonial sites. The movement evolved largely from carved Tjuringa, sand mosaics, and ceremonial ground designs associated with Central and Western Desert communities.

By contrast, East Kimberley Art emerged directly from the Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) ceremony and the painted dance boards associated with spirit journeys and ceremonial performance. Rather than emphasising dense symbolic iconography, East Kimberley painting generally focuses on large simplified landforms, ochre colour fields seperated by fine white dots, ceremonial geography, and atmospheric depictions of Country. The movement is particularly recognised for its use of natural ochres, strong horizontal compositions, and simplified semi-aerial landscapes inspired by the geology and vast open spaces of the Kimberley region.

Another major difference lies in the treatment of paint surface and colour. Western Desert painting is often characterised by intricate dotting and highly detailed surface patterning, particularly in acrylic painting traditions that emerged after Papunya. East Kimberley artists such as Rover Thomas, Paddy Bedford, Queenie McKenzie, and Hector Jandany instead developed more restrained compositions using broad areas of natural ochre pigment, subtle tonal variation, and minimal but highly deliberate dotting.

While both traditions remain deeply connected to ceremony, ancestral law, and spiritual relationships to Country, East Kimberley Art generally conveys landscape through monumental simplicity and geological presence, whereas Western Desert painting often emphasises symbolic movement, encoded ceremonial knowledge, and rhythmic iconographic complexity.

East Kimberley Artists

Paddy Jaminji

Paddy Jaminji (c.1912–1997) was a senior Kija lawman and one of the founding figures of the East Kimberley painting movement. Raised living a traditional lifestyle around Bedford Downs before working as a stockman, he spent most of his life on his ancestral Country in the East Kimberley region.

Following the establishment of the Turkey Creek settlement during the 1970s, Paddy became a highly respected elder within the community. Before beginning to paint extensively, he carved owls and decorated boomerangs for sale, but it was through the Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) ceremony that his artistic importance emerged.

Between 1976 and 1980 Paddy Jaminji painted many of the original Krill Krill ceremonial boards depicting sacred sites, spirit beings, and the posthumous spirit travels connected to Rover Thomas’ deceased aunt. His paintings are renowned for their direct simplicity, powerful ochre colour fields, and strong ceremonial connection to Country, forming the foundation of the contemporary East Kimberley painting movement.

Rover Thomas ochre painting Bedford Downs Massacre depicting the Kimberley massacre site through aerial landscape abstraction and white dotted ceremonial outlines.

Rover Thomas Joolama

Rover Thomas Joolama (c.1926–1998) became one of the most internationally celebrated artists of the East Kimberley movement and a central figure in the development of contemporary Aboriginal Australian art. Having travelled widely as a stockman throughout the Kimberley, Rover developed a profound understanding of the landscape and an extraordinary sensitivity to the natural ochre pigments that became central to his painting practice.

Emerging from the Gurirr Gurirr (Krill Krill) ceremony during the late 1970s, Rover transformed ceremonial board imagery into a highly innovative style of ochre landscape painting. His works often depict Country through simplified aerial perspectives using large blocks of natural ochre colour separated by delicate white dotting. Beneath this apparent simplicity are subtle tonal variations within the pigments themselves, giving his paintings a remarkable sense of atmosphere, depth, and connection to land.

Rover’s early paintings were typically executed on board using natural ochres, charcoal, and bush gum binders. These early materials often produced rough textured surfaces and fragile paint layers that have become characteristic features of important early Kimberley works. Over time Rover expanded his subject matter beyond ceremonial narratives to include historical events, massacres, spirit journeys, and the broader spiritual geography of the Kimberley landscape.

Paddy Bedford

Paddy Bedford (c.1922–2007) emerged remarkably late as an artist, beginning his painting career in his seventies after several early works were reportedly rescued before being discarded. Encouraged to paint on canvas rather than board, Bedford rapidly developed into one of the most important painters of the East Kimberley movement and became a leading figure associated with Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts following its establishment in 1997.

Unlike the sharply defined ochre blocks characteristic of earlier Kimberley painting, Bedford’s works often contain subtle tonal blending and soft transitions between adjoining colour fields, creating paintings of extraordinary atmospheric depth and emotional intensity. His compositions remain deeply grounded in the ceremonial geography and ochre traditions of the East Kimberley while displaying a highly individual visual language.

Many of Bedford’s most important paintings are informed by the traumatic histories of colonial violence in the Kimberley, particularly the Bedford Downs massacre, an event closely connected to his ancestral Country and community history. Through these works Bedford transformed personal, historical, and ceremonial memory into one of the most powerful bodies of contemporary Aboriginal painting.

Jack Britten

Jack Britten (c.1925–2002) was one of the major artists of the East Kimberley movement and is especially recognised for his distinctive depictions of the Bungle Bungle ranges and surrounding Kimberley landscape. His paintings often present Country through a striking horizontal perspective, mapping the land as rhythmic rows of striated hills, valleys, and escarpments rendered in natural ochre tones.

Unlike many East Kimberley artists who emphasised simplified aerial geography, Britten combined elevated viewpoints with strong horizontal spatial structures that evoke the vastness and layered geology of the Kimberley region. Circular forms within his compositions frequently represent important ceremonial sites and waterholes viewed from above, creating a visual balance between landscape observation and sacred geography.

His paintings remain highly individual within the East Kimberley movement while retaining the strong ceremonial foundations, ochre palette, and spiritual connection to Country characteristic of Kimberley Art.

Hector Jandany

Hector Jandany (c.1929–2006) was one of the most distinctive painters of the East Kimberley movement, renowned for his sparse horizontal landscapes and deeply atmospheric depictions of his maternal grandmother’s Country. His paintings often balance simplified figurative elements such as hills, ridges, and watercourses against large open spaces, creating works of remarkable quietness and emotional intensity.

A senior lawman of the Warmun community, Jandany approached painting as both cultural instruction and artistic expression. His landscapes were closely connected to ancestral knowledge and were often used to teach younger generations about Country, ceremony, and cultural responsibility.

One of the most unusual features of Jandany’s technique was his use of a stone to smooth the painted surface of the canvas, producing the hazy, washed-out finish that became characteristic of his work. This subtle surface treatment, combined with restrained ochre palettes and simplified forms, gives his paintings a powerful sense of distance, memory, and spiritual presence within the Kimberley landscape.

Queenie McKenzie

Queenie McKenzie (c.1930–1998) was one of the pioneering female artists of the East Kimberley movement and played a major role in establishing women within the contemporary Kimberley painting tradition during the late 1980s. Her success helped pave the way for a new generation of female East Kimberley artists working within what had initially been a predominantly male movement.

Her paintings are immediately recognisable for their softer ochre palette, often incorporating delicate pinks, mauves, and subtle purples that distinguish her work from the stronger earth tones commonly associated with earlier Kimberley painting. Despite this gentler palette, her paintings retain a strong connection to ceremonial geography and ancestral Country.

Queenie frequently depicted the rugged landscape surrounding Texas Downs Station and neighbouring regions of the East Kimberley. Her compositions often compress and rearrange topographical features into simplified aerial landscapes that combine memory, spiritual geography, and personal experience. Through these works Queenie McKenzie developed one of the most individual and lyrical styles within Kimberley Art.