Two artists from same remote community finalists in prestigious portrait prize
Dwayne Jessell hunches over, studying the lines his brother-in-law Troy Drill is tracing with grass dipped in ochre.
He nods in approval.
"It's very good," Jessell says.
Dwayne Jessell is now a two-time finalist at the prestigious portrait prize. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
The two Gija men are both from Warmun, a small community in Western Australia's remote north east, 3,000 kilometres north of Perth and 1,000km south of Darwin.
It has one shop, a dusty airstrip, a few boab trees, and two finalists in one of Australia's most prestigious portraiture prizes.
It's Jessell's second time as a Lester Prize finalist, while emerging artist Drill is making his debut.
The style of their self-portraits is unique, but both reflect the artists' deep connection to their country, culture and community.
Troy Drill started painting a couple of years ago. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
Jessell tears up, and apologises, as he talks about what the recognition means.
"It made me proud," he says.
"Not only for myself but for my community and the people of this great Gija Country."
Carrying the old people's dream
Jessell's father, Jack Britten, a co-founder of the Warmun Art Centre, taught him to paint.
"I was watching him paint while I was playing around with my bike," he says.
Dwayne Jessell has entered this linoprint self-portrait, titled Marks of Life. (Supplied: Lester Prize)
"My dad thought I wasn't paying attention … but I kept a lot in my head."
Both artists see their work as continuing the legacy of friends, family and neighbours who came before them.
Patrick Mung Mung is one of many senior painters plying their trade at the Warmun Art Centre. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
"They used to paint outside the old building here, the old post office," Jessell says.
"From then on, things were good for this place, until it became a proper art corporation."
Challenging history for cultural hub
The centre attracted a significant following after its opening in 1998.
But the building and its artworks were hit hard by floods that inundated Warmun in 2011.
While the flood was devastating, Jessell says the Gija community showed its strength in its response.
Warmun sits on the Great Northern Highway in WA's remote East Kimberley. (ABC News: Andy Seabourne)
"That's why we get these arts centres — to remind the younger generation to know where they stand," he said.
"To never forget who they are as an Aboriginal person and never lose that dream, never lose our culture, our law and our country."
Troy Drill's entry, Image of me out there, which is ochre painted on canvas. (Supplied: Lester Prize)
A community, a family
Troy Drill says Jessell and the other older artists at the centre are a constant source of help and encouragement.
"The first time I came here, I didn't know nothing about painting; they told me 'have a try, I'll show you'," he says.
Dwayne Jesell helps and encourages Troy Drill and other Gija artists. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
Drill says the centre offers a safe place to create and learn, but also connect.
"We have good times, sometimes bad, then we keep on working," he said.
"It's just like a little family around here."
"I know I'm blessed because of my old man and my people around here who work alongside me."
Unique artistic movement
Even in the Kimberley heat — temperatures in town routinely hit the high 30s at this time of year — Warmun artists paint together outside.
While Jessell's prize-contending self portrait is a linoprint, he, Drill and many other local artists work predominantly with ochre.
The natural earth pigment is extracted the old fashioned way, from the surrounding hills with crowbars, water and a bucket.
Warmun's ochre paintings are unique to the Kimberley community. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
University of Western Australia art history expert Darren Jorgensen said the body of ochre paintings produced from Warmun has had a distinct contribution to world art.
"Warmun has the most distinctive history of all the Aboriginal art movements in Western Australia," Professor Jorgensen said.
"The colours in the Kimberley are rich and bright and vibrant. They're the colours of red and brown and the white from underneath the rivers.
"To this day, they're really the only art centre across Australia that's exclusively working with ochre."
He said Warmun's ochre painting and portrayals of Purnululu (The Bungle Bungles) were unique, carrying similar significance to Arnhem Land's bark paintings, or the dot painting style pioneered by artists in the Northern Territory.
Dwayne Jessell showing his self-portrait Marks of Life. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)
Both Jessell and Drill say the defining features of their Lester Prize's self-portraits reflect the landscape around them.
Jessell says the stripes on the hills and creases of the skin were one, speaking to both identity and geography.
"It represents who we are, where we come from, and the land our old people walked before us, the marks, you can see it on the hill."
The $50,000 Lester Prize winner will be announced on Friday in Perth.
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