Rosemary Petyarre (Pitjara)

Rosemary Pitjara was born in around 1945 at the famous Aboriginal artist community of Utopia (350km north east of Alice Springs).

Rosemary was involved in the making of batik and in 1994 she and several other women from Utopia travelled to Indonesia to learn different techniques for producing batik. Like most other Utopian artists, Rosemary began her formal artist career with the Holmes a’Court ‘Summer Project’ in 1988 producing batik, which led to painting with acrylic on canvas.

Rosemary comes from a strong artist family background, including her sisters Jeannie and Gloria, who also paint the theme of “Bush Leaves”, representing the leaves of a native plant, said to have remarkable medicinal qualities.