"Thorny Lizard Skins" by Sharon Numina

"Thorny Lizard Skins" by Sharon Numina145 x 90 cm in size Acrylics on canvas About Sharon Sharon Numina was born in 1981 and attended school at Kormilda College Darwin. Sharon is one of six sisters and two brothers. Her mother Barbara Price Mbtitjana, an elder painter and cultural elder from Stirling Station near Tennant Creek, taught all her daughters to paint. Sharon is one of the younger painters of the fabulous Numina Sister desert artists. Sharon lives in Darwin with her older

• 145 x 90 cm in size
• Acrylics on canvas

About Sharon

Sharon Numina was born in 1981 and attended school at Kormilda College Darwin. Sharon is one of six sisters and two brothers. Her mother Barbara Price Mbtitjana, an elder painter and cultural elder from Stirling Station near Tennant Creek, taught all her daughters to paint.  Sharon is one of the younger painters of the fabulous Numina Sister desert artists. Sharon lives in Darwin with her older sisters.

Sharon's father, now passed, is from Utopia. The stories of Bush Tucker, Goanna, Dingo Tracks and other themes that Sharon paints is her mother's and father's Country and Dreaming totems and cultural knowledge stories.

Sharon and her sisters, and mother, comes from a long line of desert painters of the contemporary Aboriginal art and dot-dot central desert movement from well renowned painter aunties: Gloria and Kathleen Petyerre, who are well established artists in Alice Springs.

About the artwork:

This painting depicts the story of the skin of the “thorny devil” which is referred to by Anmatyerre people as “mountain devil lizard”. The thorny devil is a beautifully patterned dragon-like creature with barbs and humps across its back and large, bulging protuberances on its head, camouflaging its eyes. Surviving on small insects, it inhabits the dune areas of the country and can be found across much of the Western Desert. The lizard is said to change colours in the desert as the sun rises and sets and the dew catches upon their skin reflecting the ability of the Mountain Thorny Devil Lizard to change from plain to vivid colours. A very detailed work created by a series of swirls in the alluring colours of yellow, orange, red, pink and white. It captures a feeling of gentle transition and movement.