Paji Honeychild Yankarr was born along the Canning Stock Route, Fitzroy Crossing, W.A. Paji paints in a gestured, untrammelled manner, using a brush loaded with colour, with minimal marks. The main elements of her works, desert plants and land formations, are blocked in with broad sweeping brushstrokes. "I paint the country for my family. I grew up in the river country near Fitzroy Crossing".
The fluidity and looseness of the paint layering shows Paji’s ease with the medium of acrylic on canvas or paper. The spontaneous application of the paint derives from the artist’s training ground, that of ‘painting up big’ for ceremony. Paji is daring with her use of colour and space, the subject is attacked with vigour and the symbols fill the sheet.
When explaining her works, Paji uses the full palm of her hand and covers the whole surface with expansive movements. This shows that the paintings are haptic – closely related to touch – but there is also a connection between image, gesture, word and song, all of which are associated with the transmission of symbolic meaning.
In Paji’s works, grey arcs indicate dark rain clouds, the yellow semi-circles are parmar (rocks) and the green strips indicate yulka (grass). Small circles are jalurn (hail stones) and large blue circles are important waterholes. Brown is used for trees and green for foliage. The rocks, however, are bright yellow and the water is an idyllic deep blue.
The surface narrative elements, which are often, termed the painting’s "story" or "Dreaming" are only one level of an Aboriginal painting’s true significance. The imagery employed by Aboriginal artists has deep cultural resonances, which defy simple logic or narrative interpretations. The western viewer can, however, intuitively feel the power of this spiritual resonance without necessarily having to understand the details which are essentially for the initiated community members only.
Paji Honeychild has several works in the National Gallery of Victoria.
