Sarrita King | 'Earth Elements, 2026' | 30x60cm

Code: DSK26064

Artist: Sarrita King

Title: Earth Elements

Area: Darwin, NT

Community: Gurindji / Waanyi

Medium: Acrylic On Canvas

Size: 30x60cm

Year: 2026

Sarrita King paints the Australian landscape as if hovering above it. Earth Elements looks down on a country split by water. The upper field holds a deep teal sky with a bright celestial body radiating from the corner. Below, an ocean of blue dots rolls out in long horizontal currents, anchored by a luminous waterhole near the lower edge.

This is one of King's recurring meditations on the raw textures of the continent. She grew up in Darwin, surrounded by the extreme weather of the tropical north, and her work carries that sense of scale. The horizontal banding here suggests wind on water, ripples on sand, the slow drift of tide and current. Two glowing circles bookend the composition. They read as sun and waterhole, sky and earth, the elements answering each other across the canvas.

King learned to paint from her father, the late William King Jungala, and she blends his unorthodox methods with the fine dotting tradition. Each dot is placed by hand, building density and movement until the surface shimmers. Look closely and the lines breathe. Step back and the country opens up beneath you.

The waterhole motif sits at the heart of her practice. Natural waterholes were meeting places and lifelines for her Gurindji ancestors, who travelled the routes from Katherine through the desert toward Mt Isa. Here the waterhole glows white against the deep blue, a beacon in the wider field. Earth Elements belongs to King's ongoing translation of what she calls the language of the earth, where every ripple and crack is a word in a much older conversation.