Yindjibarndi painter Marlene Harold has developed an adaptive and original mix of dot and splatter techniques in her practice to create vivid, impressionistic depictions of Country.
Words by Arlie Alizzi
Image | Elder and Artist Marlene Harold in front of the Pilbara Aboriginal Church where the Yinjaa-Barni Artists began their painting journey, 2022. Photo by Claire Martin, Courtesy Yinjaa-Barni Art.
Marlene Harold, Pilbara Wildflowers, 515 x 380mm, Acrylic on Canvas. Courtesy Yinjaa-Barni Art.
Marlene Harold, Mulla Mulla, 455 x 610mm, Acrylic on Canvas. Courtesy Yinjaa-Barni Art.
Harold is a Yindjibarndi woman from the Millstream Tablelands in the Pilbara and a senior artist at the Yinjaa-Barni Arts Aboriginal Corporation.
Yinjaa-Barni means staying together in Yindjibarndi language. The Art Centre represents Yindjibarndi artists hailing from around Yirramagardu (Roebourne), a town in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The collective began by sewing together in a hall at the back of Roebourne’s Pilbara Aboriginal Church in 2005, before moving to its current home in 2007. Yinjaa-Barni Arts has led the region’s Aboriginal art movement and its artists embody important cultural knowledge in their artwork.
The Art Centre continues to grow and foster intergenerational talent, which is attracting national recognition. Harold herself has twice received recognition at the Cossack Art Award, and has been collected by the Western Australia Parliament House, the Holmes à Court Collection, and the City of Joondalup in addition to numerous private collections. She has also held many solo exhibitions, including at Chalk Horse in Sydney and at Japingka Aboriginal Art in Walyalup (Fremantle).
Marlene Painting. Photo by Claire Martin, Courtesy Yinjaa-Barni Art.
Harold was born on Mount Florence station, in the Millstream Tablelands, in 1956. Her parents lived and worked at the station. She and her family were eventually moved to the Roebourne Reserve, but after being moved, she continued to maintain a strong connection to the Millstream area.
“At first I was living out there at the old reserve with my grandfather and grandmother,” says the artist. “Every holiday we used to go out on the mail truck or the asbestos truck down to the station.”
Harold went to school in Nullagine and Marble Bar and completed her education at TAFE in art and design. She has been painting in Roebourne since 2006.
Harold has developed an adaptive and original mix of unique dot and splatter techniques in her work, to create vivid, impressionistic depictions of Country. She paints grasses, ancestral sites and stories that come from her Country. She has been noted for her striking range of contemporary styles and is known for mixing sand and other textures with her paints.
“We come in in the morning to the Art Centre and go straight into our painting,” she says. “Sometimes I paint Millstream or emu seed. Sometimes I paint anything that’s coming through my feelings.”
