Shirley Purdie

Shirley Purdie (born 1947) is a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist, notable for winning the 2007 Blake Prize for Religious Art. She is a painter at Warmun Community, in Western Australia's Kimberley region.

Life Purdie was born in 1947 at Gilbun, or Mabel Downs Station, in Western Australia's Kimberley region, daughter of Madigan Thomas. She moved to Warmun, not far from her birthplace, where she lives and paints. She is married to artist Gordon Barney.

Her Ngarrangarni totem is a crow, and skin is Nangari.

Awards

Purdie has won several awards, including the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2007, for her work Stations of the Cross. National Gallery of Australia, which has her 1996 lithograph, Giwiwan – Bow River Country. This print shows the influence of the painting style of major artist Rover Thomas. and for the 2021 Children's Book of the Year Award for New Illustrator.