Dingo and Sturt Desert Pea by Grace Timmins in Enmore

A few weeks into living in Parnngurr, I was feeling isolated and disconnected. Parnngurr community is located in the Karlamilyi National Park, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. Martu people are the traditional owners of this region in which this story takes place. One morning, walking a track I’d taken many times before, a lone dingo stood still on the path, staring back at me. That moment, brief and silent, stilled me. Later, thinking about the encounter, I followed a new track. With fresh eyes, I began to really see the red dirt, the rugged cliffs, and the spinifex scattered across the landscape. A breath, a shift and then I saw them, a sea of red Sturt Desert Peas lined the track. It was my first time witnessing a Sturt pea. My work often begins in these moments of stillness and attention. I use painting to express what can’t be spoken—to translate the felt, the fleeting, the emotional qualities of being with the land. I’m not painting landscapes in a traditional sense. I’m mapping my internal responses to place. How memory, presence, and sensation connect me to the land and myself. The work holds space for longing, awe, and being a visitor on land that is both ancient and deeply alive.