Rona and Pig at Palm Valley

Archibald Prize

2025

“Dharug artist Billy Bain has painted this emotive portrait of Western Aranda artist Rona Panangka Rubuntja. Bain has captured the cheeky yet staunch personality of Rubuntja, as evidenced by the ghost of a smirk on her lips and the playful ‘FLAWLESS’ scrawled across her beanie. Rubuntja is a leading artist working through Hermmansburg Potters in Ntaria/Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory.

Of his work, Bain has stated: ‘Rona and I first met at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in 2023 at Alice Springs where we presented on a panel together about using humour in our art practices. Rona is deaf and speaks in Auslan and Western Aranda sign language. In the green room before we took the stage, Rona was doing warmup stretches and shadowboxing, psyching up for her presentation. We had a good laugh, and it definitely calmed my nerves! Rona’s ability to captivate the crowd through her dramatic and hilarious storytelling was like nothing I’d ever seen. I think Rona’s big personality shines through in her artworks and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Whenever Rona is in Sydney, I make sure to check out her exhibitions and grab a pub feed together.

‘I was lucky to go back to the Northern Territory and visit Hermannsburg Potters in Ntaria last year to do some ceramic workshops with their men’s group. On our last day the crew took me out in the pottery troopy to Pmurlankinya (Palm Valley). We gathered firewood and cooked up some roo tail on a big bonfire and I took a quick dip in the Finke River, believed to be one of the oldest river systems in the world. Pmurlankinya is a very special place for the Ntaria mob and is a place they go on family trips to swim and camp. Rona and her dog Pig (aptly named after his eating habits) struck some poses for me to take a few sketches and photos for this painting. Pig is having a puppy litter soon and Rona has said that one of Pig’s baby camp puppies is coming to live with me in Sydney.’

The frame for this portrait is just as much a work of art as the painting. Made from recycled oregan timber, it was put together by Bain’s friend, Will Badger. 68 oval shapes were routed into the timber to hold the ceramic tiles that Bain has crafted to represent what he saw and heard during his visit to Ntaria. ‘I wanted to pay homage to both Rona and I’s ceramic practices, which are both deeply rooted in painterly applications of glaze and storytelling’, said Bain. ‘This painting will always remind me of a special time spent with friends.’”