“Me and my brother Buddy grew up riding horses, we were stock men for a long time. I taught myself how to play the country music and gospel music, I like playing just like Slim Dusty and Hank Williams. When I’m painting, I think about when I was playing that country music when I was a cowboy a long time ago. I was teaching myself these things, and now I have all of the memories, the paintings are how I remember the country."
From the mid nineteen forties, many Anangu men were employed by remote desert-based cattle stations, to work across the lands; mustering cattle on horseback and driving large herds of animals across the vast lands to water supplies and farms. Now retired from their lifelong careers as stock men, these respected Tjilpi’s (old men) enjoy recounting their youth; the skills they learned at the stations, the comradery they shared, the rugged landscape that they know so well, and the key imagery that forms their personal iconography and embellishes their canvas.
Jimmy Pompey paints for Iwantja Arts located in northern South Australia. The art center supports innovative studio artists working across a variety of mediums, encompassing both individual and collaborative contemporary arts practice. Artworks from Iwantja Arts are held in many private and public collections throughout Australia and internationally.
Iwantja Arts is a not for profit, Aboriginal owned and run corporation managed by a board of directors. Through strong governance, the art center encourages and fosters artistic
excellence and cultural development within the community by providing opportunities, training, and career development for artists.
AWARDS
2014 Highly Commended, Don Dunstan Foundation Our Mob, Emerging Artist Prize