Tjimpuna Williams

Tjimpuna is a well-established Ernabella artist who has worked in many different mediums including painting, linocut prints and batik, but her chosen field is ceramics.

Tjimpuna uses traditional patterns that relate to tjulpun-tjulpunpa (wild or desert flower), rock hole (tjukula), sand dune (tali) and also paints the Tjukurpa of her mother’s country – Piltati, near Kanpi in the APY Lands. Other pieces are her personal walka or design. These designs are drawn from batik patterns and from her own interpretation of images from country and ceremony.

Tjimpuna and Derek Thompson were awarded a grant by the Australia Council for the Arts and in 2013 undertook a big pot workshop in Jingdezhen, China. This body of work was exhibited at Sydney’s prestigious Sabbia Gallery. Tjimpuna has also travelled to Korea and Singapore for her art practice. In 2015 Tjimpuna and Derek returned to Jingdezhen and their work from that experience was exhibited with Sabbia Gallery and at the Australian Ceramic Triennale in Canberra.

Tjimpuna’s artwork has been acquired for the collections of the National Museum of Australia, Australian National Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery and Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.