Debbie Napaljarri Brown is a talented artist from Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community 400 km north-west of Alice Springs, who has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2006. Debbie has worked at the store in Nyirripi as well as helping to care for old people. She has been living in Yuendumu, 160 km east of Nyirripi, with her husband and son Jarvis since 2010 to be closer to her husband’s family. She works for the Women’s Centre, cooking lunches for the kids at school.
Debbie has grown up surrounded by talented artists. Her Grandmother, Margaret Napangardi Brown, also an artist with the art centre, taught her to paint. Her Grandfather is the renowned Pintupi artist Pegleg Tjampitjinpa who was born c.1920 and grew up in the vicinity of Wilkinkarra, living a traditional life. Debbie would watch her grandmother and grandfather paint and listen to her Grandmother’s stories. In her paintings, Debbie depicts the Tali (Sand Hills) of the country around Nyrippi and Yuendumu. These works are mesmerising in their execution and evoke a feeling of being in the desert of Central Australia.