Yam Seed Dreaming - Greeny Purvis

Apart from being a very high ranking tribal elder in Utopia, Greeny Purvis is also the nephew of the late Emily Kngwarreye. His father, Alhalkere Jack, Lindsay Bird's mother and Emily were all blood brothers and sisters.

In Greeny's paintings the colours usually indicate different stages of the growth cycle of the Yam and its seed - before germinating, after germinating, when bearing fruit, and after it has borne fruit. His paintings appear to the uninitiated to be contemporary abstraction. They reflect, however, his unpretentious personality and seniority amongst artists of the region.