Charmaine Wilson

Charmaine Wilson was born in Barmera, South Australia, in 1964. Her mother was born near Ooldea. She is a Pitjantjatjara woman. Charmaine’s father is a Ngarrindjeri from Point McLeay.

When Charmaine was a child, her family lived on an Aboriginal Reserve . With its many trees and sandhills the Reserve provided a great place to play. Charmaine and the other children looked for sap from the trees, which they chewed like gum. After the rain they dug up tadpoles and frogs in the sand hills. They caught rabbits and went out with relatives to shoot kangaroos.

Charmaine has been painting since the early 1990s. When her fourth and youngest child was born, Charmaine decided to look for something to do, to find a way of joining the workforce. She started going to an Aboriginal women’s centre in SA which provided a place for women to gather and learn new skills in the arts and crafts programmes it offered. Charmaine had always loved painting. But, it was through Millie Taylor, an outstanding Western Desert artist, who spent a lot of time at the women’s centre, that she was introduced to Aboriginal art.

Since 1994 Charmaine has been supervisor at Bungala Arts & Crafts, which employs and provides facilities for a group of Aboriginal artists in Port Augusta. In addition, Charmaine spends many hours painting at home at her kitchen table. While most of her works are paintings in acrylic on canvas, she also transforms many everyday objects – folders, picture frames, tables, tins, boxes etc – into pieces of art. Charmaine creates traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art. Bush foods, such as lizards, honey ants, witchetty grubs, quandongs, or bush bananas are among her favourite motives. Charmaine has also conducted many workshops for locals and visitors. at schools and during community events.

In 1997, during South Australia's NAIDOC celebrations, Charmaine received the NAIDOC Artist Award 1997.
In 2002, Charmaine received NAIDOC Award for Artist of the Year. The award recognised her “contribution in being instrumental in the formation of an Arts & Craft group” and also acknowledged her “outstanding commitment in providing and displaying [her] artistic abilities to the community.
In March 2006, one of Charmaine’s paintings Charmaine was awarded the fourth place at The Art of Place Visual Arts Award for. The award was given as part of the South Australian 2005-06 Women’s Art & Literature Awards.
In March/ April 2006, Charmaine’s paintings were displayed at the End the Cycle exhibition in the South Australia. The exhibition showed artworks created during a series of workshops for women, which addressed issues around Aboriginal Welfare.
In Augusta/ September 2006, one of Charmaine’s paintings was accepted for the Our Mob exhibition held at the Adelaide Festival Centre. Our Mob was the first ever exhibition to bring together a large number of Aboriginal artists from regional and remote areas of South Australia.
In September 2006, Charmaine successfully entered a sculpture for ARID, a sculptural collaboration, held in conjunction with the Eremorphila Festival at the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens,South Australia.
Painted Country Gallery's director is proud to have represented the works of Charmaine Wilson since 2004 and bring this talented traditional artist's work to a world audience.

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