Greeny Purvis, a ceremonial leader in his community, depicts stories from his traditional country of Atneltyeye, including Dreamings associated with the Emu, Turkey, Yam and Kangaroo. He commenced painting in the mid 1980’s.
As a senior man in Utopia he is granted permission to paint the body paint designs associated with mens ceremonies. The colours used in his works usually refer to the changing season or time. For example, in his bush yam paintings, the colours represent the yam seed before germinating, after germinating and the plant bearing fruit.
He lives at Boundary Bore, Utopia in the Northern Territory and is married to fellow artist Kathleen Kemarre.
His work is included in the collections at the Art Gallery of NSW and Art Gallery of South Australia.
