Caroline Numina

About The Artist

Caroline is one of the celebrated Numina sisters, whose bold, confident, and colourful paintings are enjoyed in homes throughout Australia and all over the world. Her sisters are Sharon, Selina, Louise, Jacinta and Lanita – and each of the Numina sisters are highly regarded Aboriginal Artists in their own right. Caroline, her sisters and two brothers are the children of Barbara Pananka Price and the late Douglas Petyarre, and it was two of Douglas’ sisters – the internationally-renowned Aboriginal Artists Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre – who taught their nieces to paint the Bush Medicine Leaf ceremony (Aunty Gloria) and Thorny Lizard Dreaming (Aunty Kathleen). The Numina Sisters are also the great nieces of Emily Kngwarreye and Kudditji Kngwarreye, who along with Minnie Pwerle and Ada Bird Petyarre, are the most internationally acclaimed artists of the Aboriginal Art Movement of the Utopia Aboriginal Lands of the Eastern Desert that emerged in the 1970s.

Caroline attended Primary School at Stirling Station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, and High School at Kormilda College in Darwin. Beginning her career as an artist in 2000, Caroline is rightfully celebrated and greatly admired for her unique and immediately recognisable technique, and her exquisite ‘Thorny Lizard Dreaming’ paintings have been purchased by art lovers all over the world. Caroline often returns to her Homelands to visit family in Utopia and the Central Desert, and these frequent visits back to her Country often inform the passion and cultural significance of her work. Caroline is also a masterful painter of the Bush Medicine Leaves – often incorporating the seeds like her much-loved and admired Aunties, Rosemary Petyarre and the late Jeannie Petyarre, with whom Caroline enjoys spending time when she is at home in the Central Desert. While her Aunty Kathleen Petyarre scaled the heights of international acclaim (Kathleen's work is held in countless collections around the world, including the Royal Collection), there is no doubt that Caroline is undeniably keeping the ancient and sacred stories of the little Thorny Lizard ancestor and the Bush Medicine Leaf ceremony very much alive in her stunning work.