Nichola Dare of The Gallery Shop shares the highlights from a recent trip around Australia sourcing indigenous art for her Sydney store. 

At The Gallery Shop, we source work in two ways, either via email correspondence with the art centres or when I am lucky enough to travel to the centres themselves. Either way, we hand pick every painting that comes into the shop.

We work with a number of centres across the country including Iwantja Arts and Crafts in South Australia, Warlukurlangu in the Northern Territory, Warmun Arts and Mangkaja Arts from Western Australia. In this way we ensure that we reach new and emerging artists who are on the way to making their mark with their art.



The Open Road
This picture was basically what I saw every day for nearly 3 weeks on my last trip to the Central Desert, and it never got boring! On this trip I drove (mostly alone) over 3,000km on some of the toughest roads in Australia, not bad for a Londoner. Every second was worth it.



Colour, colour everywhere
I love this photograph of the great artist Judy Watson from Warlukurlangu Art Centre.  All her paintings are incredibly colourful, as are her clothes.  Her dog's name is Lover Boy, sadly he is just out of shot in this photograph.



Clever Hands
This is a photo of Shorty Robertson, who is another great artist from Yuendumu.  He is, as his name states, quite small, but his hands are incredibly strong and powerful like his paintings. 



Colours of Country
I love this photo of how the paints are laid out for the artists. I promise that there is not one colour in the selection that you will not find in the country.



Tea Time
The tea tastes better when it takes you a good half an hour to make it. In fact everything takes longer out in the bush, but the beauty of that is that it slows you down, you can open your eyes and breath deeply and take in what I have to say is some of the most beautiful country in the world.



The Rescue
This little guy was orphaned and he had to be driven back to a rescue centre in Alice Springs. It took me back to being a mother of a new born baby; he had to be fed every couple of hours night and day!

It is often hard to articulate what it is that makes aboriginal art so very compelling, but doing a trip like this you get a true understanding of the artists and their connection to their country.  We feel very proud at The Gallery Shop to be working with some of the best artists in Australia today.