arc shapes are said to represent a rocky range at this place. East of Watukarrinya is Namarari’s birth site of Marnpi, which is also associated with the Malu Kutjarra Tjukurrpa. In various depictions of Marnpi, similar arc shapes represent either the presence of significant ancestors or the impressions left by resting kangaroos in the desert sand.

Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri was born c.1926, and his first years were spent living in the bush. Due to drought and the infringement of pastoral activity on his homelands, when he was a young boy Namarari and his extended family group journeyed to the ration station at Haasts Bluff. As a teenager he was persuaded to work with his relative Charlie Tjaruru Tjungurrayi in the cattle industry in the Areyonga region. Namarari settled at Papunya in the late 1950s, where he served as one of several councillors. In 1971, Namarari emerged as an early artist among Papunya’s painting men. He was one of the significant contributors to the first consignments of paintings to leave Papunya for sale In Alice Springs.

His early works display a confident mingling of figuration and abstraction, portraying flora and fauna and their metaphysical relationships to the Tjukurrpa

(Dreaming) and himself. As time passed, he revealed himself to be an incessant innovator, unbound by artistic or market expectations. Untitled – Watukarrinya

is a fine expression of the role Namarari played in expanding the boundaries of Western Desert art.