Sally Scales is a Pitjantjatjara woman from Pipalyatjara in the far west of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Her work consistently returns to the specificity of place, including sites of deep personal and cultural significance such as Aralya, which she has described through painting as an ancestral home tied to story and Country. Through this focus, Scales positions landscape not as scenery, but as law, culture, and responsibility, carried forward with clarity and care.
Sally Scales’ practice is grounded in the translation of tjukurpa (creation stories) into a contemporary visual language. Her paintings move between mapping and memory, presenting vivid, expansive landscapes that speak to ancestral knowledge and lived experience. Scales’ distinctive approach is also formal: colour is used with confidence, and composition is built through rhythm and repetition, creating works that are immediately compelling while rewarding sustained attention.
These works are underpinned by an intergenerational lineage of making. Scales’ aesthetic draws from the artistic styles of her grandmothers, Kuntjiriya Mick and Kunmanara (Wawiriya) Burton, and her mother, Josephine Mick, extending their influence through her own evolving voice. In this way, the paintings operate as both cultural continuity and contemporary assertion: they affirm family, community, and Country as living frameworks rather than distant reference points.
