Maureen Poulson Napangardi Haasts Bluff, Papunya NT, Australia, b. 1958

Maureen Poulson Napangardi was born in 1958 in Papunya, daughter to Pilyari Napurulla, a strong law woman for Papunya, and is sister and niece respectively to Papunya Tula artists Brogas Tjapangarti and Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula. They all share the Country around Ilpilli, Kalipinypa and Tjikari, and Maureen inherited their Kalipinypa Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) which tells of an important rain making ceremony, with the power to create new life and growth upon the land and the resulting storms.

Maureen Poulson Napangardi and her sister Alice live in Papunya where they paint for Papunya Tjupi Arts. The sisters’ older brother Brogas Tjapangarti, who now lives in Alice Springs, painted for Papunya Tula Artists in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their father – whose father was also called Brogas – was Jimmy Tjukurrpa, a Ngaliya man whose country was Kunatjarri and Pikilyi. Their mother was Pilyari Napurrula, a sister of Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, who shared with him country around Ilpilli, Kalipinypa and Tjikari which Maureen and her siblings also share. Brogas, born c.1949, was the eldest of Jimmy and Pilyaris children, then Alice, then Maureen, who was born in Haasts Bluff, then another daughter and two more sons, all born in Papunya.

Maureen’s work excites the eye as it elicits a sense of movement and vibrating patterns through her subtle shifts in colour and intricately dot-painted diamond shaped designs. She uses dotting to represent hailstorms, and her use of colours and designs are representative of waterholes, sandhills, clouds, lightning and rocks. Maureen often paints large scale, and dedicates many hours to each piece, painting at the art centre each day. 

Her work is held at the Kunstwerk, Collection of Alison and Peter W. Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany, Artbank Collection and University of Western Sydney Collection.