Broome painting ‘Mates Mangos and Music’ original art by Broome artist Suzanne Holland.
Artists Description:
Broome time ‘Mates Mangos and Music’ art piece captures warm Kimberley days spent under the shady mango tress cooking up mud crabs with mates while listening to music.
Peach coloured Mangoes hang like water balloons from the tree, ready to burst their skin, in the build up, just before the wet. This is when the air is thick with troppo season and Pigram music. Guitars are strummed in rhythm and then out of tune as the alcohol starts to play, but no one minds.
Smells of cooking spices from distant origins stain your senses, and remind you of the tangible heritage of Broome. People in no shirts and big laughs, mix with Frangipani ponytails and beer bellies. All have the red grain of ‘Pindan’ etched in their hearts and on their feet, topped with the smell of homemade sweet chilli sauce on their breath.
Mud crabs surrender cooked on the table too hot to care, goannas flatten and camouflage themselves against the torso of the tree, hoping in vain that they are not baked on an evening fire.
Little cheeky boys with big smiles and brown eyes, oblivious to the heat and height of the mango tree, watch chatty birds fly over Roebuck Bay.
Broome ‘bitsa’ dogs hover, knowing that kind owners and their mates will feed them. There’s always a dog called Bundy there somewhere.
This painting was inspired on one of those days. The sky was too blue and the ‘Pindan’ too red to do anything else but forfeit the day to Broome time with a Matso’s beer, Mates, Music and Mangoes.
