Artist Profile

Eric Djorlom

Oenpelli, West Arnhem Land, NT

Artist Profile

Eric Djorlom

Oenpelli, West Arnhem Land, NT

Language Group: Kunwinjku

Country: Oenpelli, West Arnhem Land, NT

Age: Born 1968

Ancesors of today’s Kunwinjku artists have been painting on cave walls and bark depicting stories of their immediate environment portraying common day to day figures such as kangaroos, birds, fish, turtles etc.

Painting will show how they are hunted and how they are viewed in traditional rituals.

X-hatch paintings, as they are commonly known, are derived from artists in the “Top End’ of Australia.

The artists are limited with colours that they can use due to tradition which are shades of red and yellow, white and black. Red and yellow are obtained from natural ochre, white is obtained from pipe clay and gypsum and black is found from charcoal soot or manganese ore.