Commissions

Made for one person

How a commission works with Taminga Connell, and why she will not show you the painting until it is finished.

THE KIMBERLEY SHOP · KUNUNURRA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Taminga Connell is a Bunuba and Gija woman, descended from one of the largest families in the Kimberley. Her grandmother, Maude Bedford, belonged to Calwynyardah on Bunuba Country. Her grandfather's land lies at Tableland, on Gija Country. Her name means strong white gum tree — resilience, and connection to the land.

She left home at fifteen to work as a jillaroo on Flora Valley Station, and from there across stations in both the East and West Kimberley. She lives in Kununurra now, and paints there.

She came to painting through art therapy — a way of settling herself, of processing what needed processing, and of telling stories that needed telling. The work that grew out of that is contemporary and deeply personal, drawn from dreams, visions and stories, past and present. It hangs on walls around the country. It has also been painted onto helicopters, onto eyewear and onto walls as murals, through work with Corsair Aviation, Pearls of Australia, PHI and CNHI.

What follows is how a commission actually goes.

It starts with a phone call

Or an email. Someone gets in touch because they want a painting, and usually because a particular place or a particular person is behind it.

You are welcome to share the size you have in mind, the colours you are drawn to, and the style you like. Taminga takes all of that. What she does not take is instruction — the creative decisions stay with her, and that is the arrangement. It is the reason the work is worth commissioning rather than ordering.

What she actually needs from you

Less than people expect. Not a brief, not a mood board, not a reference photograph.

She wants a general feel for who you are. The commission is about the connection between the artist and the person receiving the work, and she genuinely likes getting to know the people her paintings go home with. That conversation is the raw material.

It is more about the connection, the relationship. I love getting to know the person who is receiving my art.

Then she takes her time

Nothing is painted straight away. Taminga reflects on what she has learned about you and works out how the piece can be unique — how it can be best suited to the person it is going to. It is a personalised experience, and the thinking is most of it.

You see it when it is finished

There is no sketch to approve, no concept to sign off. The painting is shown once it is complete.

That will not suit everybody, and it is worth understanding before you begin. It is also the point. A work made to a committee's satisfaction, step by step, is not the same object as a work made by an artist who has been trusted to make it.

Price, deposit and time

Price is set by size and by the level of detail in the piece, so it is worked out per commission rather than off a list. A twenty per cent deposit starts the work, and the turnaround is generally around six weeks.

Packed by hand, sent anywhere

Taminga packs every finished painting herself and ships it to your door. Her work has gone all over the world from Kununurra.

However much love and thought goes into it, every piece carries a little of the Kimberley embedded in it.

TO BEGIN

An email or a phone call

YOU SHARE

Size, colours, preferred style — and something of yourself

SHE DECIDES

Everything else

YOU SEE IT

Once the piece is complete

PRICE

Set by size and detail

DEPOSIT

20% to start

TURNAROUND

Around six weeks

SHIPPING

Packed by Taminga, sent worldwide