The partnership
Samantha Wortelhock and Damien Naughton rank as two of Australia’s most popular artists. Over 18 years, this husband and wife team has gained a level of international success rarely seen in Australia.
Samantha met Damien for the first time in 1989 when she walked in to the Naughton Studio of Naive Art in Queen Street Woollahra. It was Damien’s business, one of Australia’s finest naive art galleries. The art Samantha saw there was an inspiration and she started traveling and painting. When Damien later saw her works he recognised her potential and suggested they start painting together.
A unique partnership was born. Now, Samantha and Damien literally create their paintings together.There is not one painting which has not been touched by both artists.
The stories behind the paintings
One day in 2004, Samantha sat at her computer and started writing. Within ten minutes a poem was born about her painting ‘Soul Survivor’. The painting revealed a hidden part of itself. The people on the beach in the image were initially painted at random – however, in the poem they became integral to the painting’s message.
Following this, Samantha was inspired to keep writing poems about each of the ‘epic’ paintings in the collection. Each poem reveals new aspects of the painting, as if the paintings were speaking on their own behalf. These poems appear with the paintings on the Gallery page.
Books
Damien and Samantha’s first book, My Country was published in 1994 by Australia Post and married Samantha and Damien’s paintings with Dorothea McKellar’s famous poem of the same name.
More recently, Samantha collaborated with Aboriginal Elder Bill Yidumduma Harney and academic Professor Hugh Cairns on two illustrated books. Dark Sparklers is a book on the stellar songlines for which Samantha painted two paintings which describe the two creation songlines.
Now Samantha is working on the feature painting for a sequel book on Aboriginal custodial law. At Bill’s invitation, Samantha has spent time on his Wardaman people’s land, 150kms west of Katherine. Together the three very different collaborators are creating a powerful work of education and reconciliation.
| Bill took me to ‘Moon Dreaming’, a rock art gallery of immense beauty and importance. He sat me down and told me the Creation Story, the subject of my painting ‘Re-member’. As I listened I felt that I was at the most important moment of my work as an artist. I was holding hands with a man who trusted me with his story. I knew this experience would lead to a number of paintings which would assist in our understanding of Bill’s world view. Consequently paintings such as ‘Dreamtime’, ‘Passover’, ‘Hard Act to Swallow’, ‘Oversoul’ and ‘Circles’ followed. The poems to all of those paintings came from the art, not from me. Listening, I learned, is the greatest contribution to reconciliation. – Samantha Wortelhock |
Work with schools
For the past ten years, Samantha has spent significant time every year volunteering in schools to teach children about the environment and art. Her purpose is to bring alive children’s originality and imaginations. Following enthusiastic encouragement from parents and teachers, Samantha is now planning to venture into educational broadcasting. Watch this space!
Art has the power to change consciousness ...
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