Continuing the family legacy, Pitjantjatjara woman Sally Scales has taken out the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA).
Hailing from Pipalyatjara in the far west of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, Ms Scales is the granddaughter of revered artist, the late Kunmanara Wawiriya Burton and daughter of artist Josephine Mick.
“One of the greatest things is being able to sit and paint with Mum,” she said.
"It reminds me of when I used to sit down with my grandma and watch her paint. Sitting next to my Mum, and having the conversations with her about our painting, it’s very special.”
Ms Scales’ mammoth artwork, which stretches 3-metres in size, depicts Tjukuṟpa and is a homage to her matriarchs.
Sally Scales, Wati Tjakura 2021 in 2021 Telstra NATSIAA at MAGNT Darwin. Source: MAGNT/Mark Sherwood
Melting her mother and grandmother’s style together, Ms Scales also included pieces of the women artists of APY.
"I am blending two components my mother's artistic style and my grandmother Wawiriya Burton's artistic style in the painting,” she explained.
"The base of the colour underneath, I used the leftover tubs of paint from the women . . . The ladies may have white or orange, and they'd dip it into a red or magenta and it makes its own unique colour, so I put all of them on the canvas,” she said.
“I used a big brush to pull that pattern together underneath, and the line through centres the piece and goes back to what my grandma did in her work.
"It's very much a homage to my artists Elders and family members and adding those layers of Mum and grandma and finding myself in between.”
The former chair of the APY Executive Board Council, Ms Scales is part of the youth leadership team for the Uluru Statement reform, a single mum and an award-winning artist.
Balancing it all is easier when she has time to paint.
"I'm very early in my career, I'm still having a play, I’m still exploring a lot of stuff, but what I’m loving is what painting gives me in terms of relaxation and refocusing,” she said.
"With my work with the Uluru Statement, which is trying to get our communities being heard and changing that Constitution, painting allows me to refocus that work. It reminds me why it matters."
Now living in Adelaide, Ms Scales said painting enables her to connect back to her roots.
Pitjantjatjara woman Sally Scales Source: Supplied
“I moved off Country for job opportunities and for education for my son, but the thing the ladies talk about, and what has tapped into me as well, is that when you’re painting, you go back to Country, back home,” she said
"The Songlines that me, my Mum and my grandma paint are part of our home . . . While I've had the Tjukuṟpa very embedded into me growing up, putting it on canvas has been a lot of fun and exploring it all.
"This is carrying on the legacy of my family, but also the incredible arts leaders from the centres across from APY that I was able to see and be a part of growing up.”
Only picking up the paintbrush professionally in 2020, Ms Scales’ talent is already turning heads. Alongside winning the 2021 People’s Choice Award at the NATSIAA, she hosted her first exhibition at the APY Gallery in 2021.
