About Us

ABOUT OWEN

Wiradjuri artist Owen Lyons has been involved with the creation and sale of Aboriginal art for over 30 years. Owen was a young child when first exposed to Aboriginal art by his father. His father demonstrated the centrality of painting in Aboriginal culture and as an adult; Owen continued to learn his technique from his older brother Michael (Sandhill Artefacts) and went on to develop his own unique style, but still gives his brother a lot of credit for the artist he has become today.

Owen’s art is in the traditional dot painting style with a focus particularly on the Murrumbidgee River area of South West, New South Wales.

Owen regularly visits galleries and museums around Australia seeking inspiration, and often watches respected Aboriginal artists and craftspeople at work, sometimes collaborating with them.

In 2015, Owen underwent a kidney transplant after being on dialysis for 7 years prior and also watched his only son develop a serious mental condition (Schizophrenia). This was a major turning point in his life but it also became the motivation and drive of the artist he is becoming. “It really is a source of therapy. Once I start painting, I seem to find a calm place where everything happening in my life comes to a pause”. A specific attribute that stands out with Owens artwork is the way he incorporates the strenuous emotions suffered by mental illness patients and families upon himself and shows it throughout his artwork; Patience, time consuming, planning, learning, building confidence and life values are the ones that are closely related in the painting.

‘I am a proud Wiradjuri man and I live and paint on Wiradjuri Country’.

 

ABOUT WIRADJURI ART

Wiradjuri Art Gallery was established as an avenue to provide the people of Australia, authentic aboriginal art. Owen Lyons is the artist behind the Wiradjuri Art Gallery. His website is www.owenlyonsart.com.

Owen's paintings exemplify traditional techniques of storytelling containing symbols, patterns and imagery, while also exploring with diverse, unique patterns and colours for a more contemporary feel. 

"My art is in the traditional dot painting style with a focus particularly on the Murrumbidgee River area of South West New South Wales. The dot style is appealingly aesthetic to the eye, is a kind of maplike, a bird’s-eye view and with hidden meaning and deeper purpose." - Owen Lyons

 

WIRADJURI - MY TRIBE

The Wiradjuri people (pronounced weeradjuri) are a group of Aboriginal people that were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans scattered throughout central New South Wales.

The Wiradjuri people occupy a large area in central New South Wales, from the Blue Mountains in the east, to Hay in the west, north to Nyngan and south to Albury: the South Western slopes region.

The Wiradjuri people are the largest Aboriginal group in NSW. The tribal area has been described as “the land of the three rivers", the Wambool later known as the Macquarie, the Kalare later known as the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee, or Murrumbidjeri.