Born: 1948
Language: Pintupi
Area: Central & Western Desert
Lily Kelly Napangardi is a senior law woman of the Mt Liebig community, in the Haasts Bluff area of the Northern Territory, 325 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.
Lily Kelly was born at Haasts Bluff in 1948. She moved to the newly established settlement of Papunya in the 1960's. During her time there, Lily began painting, notably assisting with works by her husband Norman Kelly. Lily returned to Mt Liebig with her husband in the early 1980's. Lily began painting in her own right in the early 1980's, winning the Northern Territory Art Award for painting in 1986, and the General Painting Category at the 20th NATSIAA Telstra awards in 2003.
Lily holds authority over the Women's Dreaming story associated with Kunajarrayi. She is now teaching younger women traditional dancing and singing associated with this Dreaming, and has become one of the senior Law Women of the community. Lily has three children and eleven grandchildren.
Lily's paintings of country, especially the sandhills of the Kintore and Coniston areas, often depict the winds and the desert environment after rain. Her paintings can mark the seasonal changes in this sandy landscape, and the crucial waterholes found in the area. There is the finest microcosmic detail embedded into a macrocosmic view of the landscape. It is the ephemeral nature of the drifting, changing country that is Lily Kelly's key subject.