Wattie Karruwara Wandjina paintings
Wattie Karruwara is one of the most important early Wandjina painters from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. As a pioneering artist in the commercialisation of Wandjina iconography, his works are now highly sought after by collectors, institutions, and scholars alike. His distinctive style—whether on bark, slate, coolamon, or paper—offers a profound connection to Wunambal Country and culture.
This article aims to help you identify whether your bark painting or slate artwork may be an original Wattie Karruwara. By comparing known examples of his work, we highlight key stylistic traits: full-bodied Wandjina figures with fan-shaped headdresses, delicate hands and feet, red ochre-covered torsos, and soft, often eyebrowed faces lacking the more typical eyelash detailing. His watercolours, meanwhile, are characterised by their naïve charm and semi-naturalistic depictions of Kimberley flora and fauna—produced using Winsor & Newton paints in collaboration with anthropologist John McCaffrey in the 1960s.
If you believe you own a Wattie Karruwara painting on bark, slate, or paper, I would be very interested in hearing from you. Whether you’re looking to sell or simply curious about its value, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You’re welcome to send a clear JPEG image of your artwork—I’d genuinely love to see it and can offer insight into its style, provenance, and potential market value.
The Distinctive Style of Wattie Karruwara: A Pioneer of Wandjina Painting
Wattie Karruwara (c.1910–1980s) stands among the most significant early interpreters of Wandjina iconography in the Kimberley region. A true pioneer of commercially painted Wandjina art, Karruwara’s work—alongside that of Waijin Djanghara, Lilly Karedada, and Alec Mingelmanganu—helped bridge the sacred traditions of Kimberley rock art with the emerging world of contemporary Aboriginal painting.
Karruwara’s Wandjina figures are instantly recognisable for their finely rendered, full-bodied forms—a stylistic distinction that sets his work apart from many of his peers. Painted predominantly in the inland Wunambal tradition, his Wandjinas feature large, fan-shaped headdresses with vertical rays, rather than the circular halo-like forms common in coastal variations. These headdresses signify spiritual radiance and ancestral power, unique to his custodial region in the Hunter River basin.
The figures themselves are rendered with delicate precision: small eyes, noses, and finely drawn hands and feet. His bodies are often painted in rich red ochre, evoking both ceremonial significance and the earth itself. Unlike many other Wandjina representations, Karruwara’s faces frequently omit the traditional eyelashes and sometimes include softly arched eyebrows, lending a quiet solemnity to his subjects.
According to Wunambal belief, Wandjinas are ancestral spirits who shaped the land and, after their earthly journeys, lay down in the caves and became part of the rock. Karruwara’s paintings honour this tradition, translating the sacred permanence of rock art into mobile works on bark, coolamons, slate, and carved boab nuts.
Wattie Karruwara: Pioneer of Individual Expression in Wandjina Art
Wattie Karruwara (c.1910–1980s), a pioneering Wunambal artist of the Kimberley region, was born in the remote Hunter River basin (Mariawala), in the area known to his people as Elalemerri. His clan, the Landar, took their name from the Emu-flower (Bossiaea bossiaeoides), with the Brolga (karangkuli) as their primary totem. From these roots, deeply tied to land and spirit, emerged a singular artistic voice that helped shape the early contours of contemporary Aboriginal art.
As a child, Wattie’s life took a dramatic turn after a tragic incident involving shipwrecked sailors and a retaliatory spear led to his detainment and eventual release in Perth as a minor. Displaced for decades, he worked as a police tracker in Western Australia’s goldfields before finally returning to Mowanjum, where he lived with his uncle, the revered Wunambal elder and occasional painter, Mickey Bungkuni. It was under Bungkuni’s tutelage that Wattie began painting, preserving the sacred Wandjina traditions of his ancestors.
Wattie’s earliest known painting, Wandjina Man with Long Neck, was collected by anthropologist Norman Tindale in 1953. Through the 1960s and 70s, his works were collected by notable researchers including Peter Lucich and Helen Groger-Wurm, and now reside in esteemed institutions such as the National Museum of Australia and the University of Western Australia.
While best known for his bark paintings, Wattie also painted on coolamons, slate, and carved boab nuts—evidence of his stylistic versatility. Alongside Charlie Numbulmoore, he was among the first Aboriginal artists in the Kimberley to be recognised as an individual artistic identity prior to the 1970s.
Alternate spellings include Wattie Karrawara, Kaduwara, and Karawara.
Wattie Karruwara’s Watercolours: A Rare Window into Kimberley Country
Though widely celebrated for his Wandjina paintings, Wattie Karruwara is perhaps most uniquely distinguished by a remarkable series of watercolours—vivid, semi-naturalistic works that stand apart within the Kimberley art canon. These pieces, created under extraordinary circumstances, reveal another dimension of his genius: a delicate yet spirited portrayal of the natural world, rich with both cultural memory and personal reflection.
This exceptional body of work emerged through a collaboration in the early 1960s between Karruwara and American anthropologist John McCaffrey. Recognising the artist’s rare talent, McCaffrey initially provided bark as a painting surface, flown in from Arnhem Land through Professor Ronald Berndt. However, as bark was not traditionally used in the Kimberley and proved difficult to source, McCaffrey eventually turned to fine paper and professional-grade Winsor & Newton watercolours sourced in Perth.
The results were nothing short of extraordinary. McCaffrey recalled Karruwara painting “sometimes up to eight hours straight, in a trance-like state with eyes open” (Flynn 2003:10). These works—more than 38 in total—were completed at the Derby Leprosarium after Karruwara was diagnosed with leprosy. They depict the flora and fauna of his ancestral lands with an innocence and immediacy that speaks to both deep cultural knowledge and individual artistic freedom.
Far from the symbolic abstraction of his Wandjina paintings, Karruwara’s watercolours convey a charming naivety—bright, intimate, and emotionally resonant. They remain a rare and poignant testament to his resilience, creativity, and capacity to adapt traditional Kimberley visual language into new and unfamiliar media.
Together, these watercolours form one of the most significant yet lesser-known chapters of Wattie Karruwara’s artistic legacy—one that continues to captivate scholars and collectors alike.
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Wattie Karruwara Wandjina Images
The following is not a complete list of works but gives a very good idea of this artists style when painting Wandjina.
