BOW RIVER COUNTRY, 1996
ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA)
natural earth pigments and resins on canvas
76.0 x 96.0 cm
bears inscription verso: artist’s name, Warringari Arts cat. S663 and Red Rock Art cat. KP196
Warringari Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia
Red Rock Art, Kununurra, Western Australia
Private collection
Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 347 (as ‘Kukatja/Bow River Country’)
Caruana & Reid Fine Art, Sydney (label attached verso)
Private collection, Western Australia, acquired from the above in 2004
Important Aboriginal Art, Caruana & Reid Fine Art, Sydney, November 2004
When he was a young man Rover Thomas worked as a stockman on several cattle stations in the East Kimberley. Bow River Station was one of these. Rover remembered his time at Bow River as the ‘good old days’. Occasional visits back to this place inspired him to paint it. In this map-like picture, Rover Thomas employs an impasto technique of paint application that lends the work a considered and deliberate aspect, yet it contains the vitality of his intuitive, unpredictable compositions.
Wally Caruana