Jimmy Donegan Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1940 -

Jimmy was born at Yanpan, a rockhole near Ngatuntjarra Bore circa 1940. He grew up as a bush baby in country around Blackstone and Mantamaru (Jamieson) in Western Australia.

Jimmy has family links throughout the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands and his wife was from a place near Kalka. Jimmy took his wife and children to live at Blackstone because of his tie to that country. He is now widowed and has returned to Kalka Community to live with his children, and close to his sister Molly Nampitjin Miller.

Jimmy is a wonderful wood craftsman - his spears, spear throwers and boomerangs are prized and much sort-after. He is rich in story and a strong man for law and culture.

In August 2010, Jimmy Donegan won the most prestigious art prize in Australia - The Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award. He was the winner of two sections - the General Painting Category and the Overall Prize.

"Like much of Donegan's work over the past decade, the award winning painting is solemn and emphatic in its design, but dazzlingly illuminated. The artists technique it to compose the colour lines of his canvases from thousands of large dots in different hues, which blend into a whole" Nicolas Rothwell, The Weekend Australian, August 2010.