the top 50 most collectible artists in Australia by Art Collector magazine. Kudditji painted from 1986 to 2013, when he became ill. In 2013, Kate Owen Gallery presented the exhibition "The Master Returns"a long-awaited new body of work by Kudditji and his first since overcoming a difficult battle with illness. Gallery Owner and Director, Mr Geoff Henderson commented at the time, "Quite simply, this is the most powerful and compelling body of works I’ve seen from him". Kudditji continued to paint until 2015 when illness prevented him from painting any longer. Two years later in January 2017 he died peacefully in a retirement home in Alice Springs. Art style Acrylic paintings were introduced to Utopia in 1988/89 by Rodney Gooch and others of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). An exhibition of some of the paintings of these artists' work organised by CAAMA was held called "A Summer Project", where Kngwarreye's work got immediate attention from critics. The attention she received coincided with the worldwide art boom that occurred at this time. Whereas the predominant Aboriginal style was based on the one developed with some assistance from art teacher Geoffrey Bardon at the Papunya community in 1971 of many similarly sized dots carefully lying next to each other in distinct patterns members of the Utopia community were encouraged by Mike Mitchell of Muk Muk Fine Art (now Mitchell Fine Art) and after intensive workshopping and trialling, the quintessential Kudditji brushwork emerged. Kngwarreye further refined and created his own original artistic style. Like many of the desert artists, he mastered the use of acrylic paint on canvas. His use of colour combined with simple shapes tell the stories of one of his inherited ancestral totems - the Emu Ancestors, their travels and teachings depicting various interpretations of the Emu Dreaming sites and ceremonies associated with men's business. Initially, his highly intuitive and gestural method of painting that he became known for was not welcomed by galleries. Instead, he was encouraged to paint in the fashionable style of the time, executing works with overt iconography, figurative elements and detailed infill. After seeing the great Utopian artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye catapult on to the Australian and International Art scene using a technique similar to his, Kudditji resumed his exploration of the abstract. From early 2003 Kudditji began to experiment with paint to eradicate the pointillist style altogether and use a heavily loaded