{"product_id":"tim-johnson-clifford-possum-2003-150x170cm","title":"Tim Johnson | 'Clifford Possum, 2003' | 150x170cm","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCode:\u003c\/strong\u003e DDTJ0301\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtist:\u003c\/strong\u003e Tim Johnson\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTitle:\u003c\/strong\u003e Clifford Possum\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedium:\u003c\/strong\u003e Acrylic On Canvas\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 150x170cm\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYear:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2003\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA meditative figure sits cross-legged at the centre of a shimmering, dot-laden field — bearded, dressed in a loose white shirt, eyes half-closed in inward attention. The figure is \u003cstrong\u003eClifford Possum Tjapaltjarri\u003c\/strong\u003e, one of the towering figures of the Western Desert painting movement, rendered here not as ethnographic subject but as fellow traveller, friend, and spiritual peer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAround him, the canvas pulses with thousands of fine dots — a technique the artist absorbed through decades of dialogue, collaboration and friendship with Papunya Tula painters. Yet the surface also teems with miniature scenes drawn from a wider devotional imagination: tiny seated figures in prayer and meditation, lotus blossoms, mandala-like rosettes, small congregations gathered on ochre mats, processions of robed pilgrims along the lower edge. Buddhist, Hindu and Aboriginal visual languages drift together in a single luminous atmosphere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe painter is known for exactly this kind of syncretic vision — a practice that bridges Australian desert aesthetics with Tibetan Buddhist iconography and a broader cosmology of the sacred. \u003cem\u003eClifford Possum\u003c\/em\u003e reads as both portrait and offering: a tribute to a senior artist whose authority and presence anchor the composition, while the swirling field around him suggests the countless lives, prayers and stories that radiate outward from a single still centre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe palette is soft and atmospheric — dusty rose, pale gold, sky blue, cream and earth — punctuated by jewel-bright flecks of orange, turquoise and crimson. Light seems to come from within the surface itself, as if the dots were particles of breath or thought. Up close, the painting dissolves into pure pattern; at a distance, the meditator re-emerges, calm and monumental.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a generous, contemplative work: a meeting place between two painting traditions, two friends, and two ways of seeing the world as a field of interconnected presence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dreamtime Distribution","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51208758231273,"sku":"DDTJ0301","price":50000.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0769\/0993\/6873\/files\/DDTJ0301-Tim_Johnson-2003-Clifford_Possum-150x170-1_web2000.jpg?v=1781138151","url":"https:\/\/cag.art\/products\/tim-johnson-clifford-possum-2003-150x170cm","provider":"Canberra Art Gallery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}