Angelina George Recent Works

Angelina and her sisters attended mission school (Mr. Palmer and Mr. Lesky – from the Anglican Church) and worked in the Mission gardens, although Angelina tried to avoid it as much as possible. Eva Rogers was a schoolteacher too and Dinah Garadji helped in school and the gardens.

“I was the naughtiest girl! I used to run down to the river when I should be at school, and go fishing with the old people. One time they saw me and started paddling away in a canoe. I sung out to them to “stop!” but they kept going, so I jumped in and swam after them. Not many crocodiles then like now.”

Angelina is the youngest of the Joshua sisters. Her work often features moody, undulating landscapes of rivers and hills, or bright bold bush flowers and birds. Angelina enjoys painting and spending time with her grandchildren.

Angelina’s people are called Ngyameratjara, fresh water people, and one of her favorite things is to go fishing in the rivers and billabongs, especially Yellow Waters Billabong, or Boomerang Lagoon – both featured in many of her paintings.

“In the mission days we planted short beans, green beans, pawpaw, bananas, cabbage, rock melon, carrot and beetroot…big bean garden down the riverside…irrigation was put in with a pump water ran through the trench… peanuts had another farm.

After gardening helped little bit in the school kitchen work in the kitchen real early set yeast every night for making bread: Miss Rendall was the cook. (She died now in Sydney or Melbourne)”

Angelina is a contemporary artist whose paintings are explorations of the landscape: reflecting and imagining the space and structure of the country. The distinctive feature of her work is her attention to detail in capturing moody, undulating aerial perspectives of place. Dry creek beds, burnt trees, sandy river systems, swollen billabongs, sweeping birds, veins of fresh flora on the rocks, walking tracks and camp sites give evidence to the intimate relationship Angelina enjoys with her past and her land. These journeys are magnified in bright bold paintings of layered bush flowers and birds.

Angelina enjoys painting and is producing works that are the result of patience, a serious interest in her own profile and increasing confidence in her own unique style.