Snake Dreaming 1990

Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi made this painting called "Snake Dreaming" without any firm date using acrylic on canvas. You can see the artist using a meticulous, process-driven technique here, building up the image dot by dot. These dots create this really hypnotic surface, almost like a field of energy. The color choices—earthy yellows, browns, and blues, interspersed with these starbursts of white—really bring this energy to life, don't they? You see the physicality of the medium, the way the paint sits on the canvas, creating a slight texture that invites you to get closer. The snake itself, rendered in pink, winds its way through this landscape of dots. Now, focus on one particular dot, how it contributes to this greater whole, how it relates to the meandering form of the snake, or to those astral starbursts. It reminds me of Howard Hodgkin, but really, Possum Nungurrayi's vision is singular, celebrating ambiguity and multiple interpretations of dreaming.