Aboriginal designs adds depth and meaning to interiors through the exceptional talent of Walmajarri artist, Jimmy Pike (1940-2002) and his second collection with Materialised, Desert in Colour.
“The stars aligned when we met Steve Culley, MD of Desert Designs, in 2018,” says Belinda Price, Director at Materialised. “The first collection, Desert Goes Digital, has been incredibly well received since its launch in 2019. Now we are so proud and excited to see the response to the second collection, Desert in Colour. It’s a beautifully expressive way to keep Jimmy Pikes legacy alive.”
Our Textile Designer and Creative Manager, Chloe Evans, developed Desert in Colour in close collaboration with Jimmy’s wife, Pat Lowe, and Steve Culley, MD and Founder of Desert Designs.
Each design is submitted to Steve and the Jimmy Pike Trust, showing all changes that have been made from the original, ensuring we have the proper approval before we move forward.
Aboriginal Designs
“Jimmy Pike has such a vibrant, bold archive of artworks,” says Chloe. “It is an absolute treasure chest, rich with stories. For this collection, we curated a range that looks at the landscape and home of Jimmy Pike, from falling stars and wildflowers in the bush to meandering patterns on the sandhills.“
Chloe takes us through the designs, sharing the original artwork for each, as well as how it has been translated into the world of commercial textiles and wall covering.
Falling Star
A snippet taken from the story by Jimmy Pike of how he was hit by a falling star. Jimmy originally created a series of four artworks illustrating this. We adapted one of these and as you can see, not much alteration of the artwork was needed to make this beautiful graphic print.
Japingka
This artwork is of great importance to Jimmy Pike’s collection and represents one of the larger desert waterholes in the Great Sandy Desert, where people gather around to tell the spirits to look after the place and fill the waterhole.
“Other than some serious file separation for all those colours and getting the lines to meet up for a repeat, this artwork translated perfectly to a digital textile and wall covering print,” explains Chloe.
“Pike’s brilliantly coloured artworks depict his desert home brimming with life, countering any notion of the desert as a barren or desolate place.” – Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
Meandering
Meandering illustrates patterns and markings across the sandhills. As you will see with a lot of Jimmy’s work, he has a strong graphic style of telling stories, with bold use of colours. In this case it is introduced from his love of texta ink pens.
Partiri
A wildflower landscape bursting with life and colour after the rain. There are many wildflowers in the Great Sandy Desert. Black Powderpuff, Tinsel Flower, Desert Lime and Emu Bush are just a few of the fabulous desert flower names that he drew.
Sand Dunes
A linear Aboriginal design representing the active sand dune movements. This design is perhaps the most different from the original artwork. As you can see, we have just taken the bottom element from this piece and kept the texture. “This section represents the active sand dune movements and has been translated into a stripe. The texture that is shown in the print works back to the texture and markings from Jimmy’s original piece of art.”
Wildflowers
This is another design that celebrates the vivid colours and shapes of the Great Sandy Desert.
“This print was one of the first to be created for this collection,” says Chloe. “The motifs of the flowers from Jimmy just jumped out to me, this drawing has so much energy I knew we had to include it. It was created by separating the different flowers into a repeat with lots of movement and made sure to keep the great texture in the background that you can see in the original from the texta. I refined the five colour stories with guidance and feedback from the Jimmy Pike Trust, the result is a spectacular exploration of colours that make up the palette of the Great Sandy Desert.”
Jimmy’s artistic genius and wisdom certainly changed my life and it is with great excitement that I now see it changing the lives of the next generation” – Steve Culley, MD & Founder, Desert Designs
As Steve says, “Australasia is richer by having this magic to share.” And we can’t wait to see what you create using the new Desert in Colour Aboriginal designs.
You can login/signup for a web trade account to order sampling online, through your Project Managers or book an appointment to meet the team at your local Materialised Design Studio and see the collection with fabulous coordinating fabrics, wall covering and acoustic products.
