Selma grew up in Hermannsburg where she went to school with fellow artist Ivy Pareroultja. She is an accomplished acrylic artist and has recently started painting in watercolour. 

Selma states about herself: “My name is Selma Coulthard. My Aboriginal name is Nunay. I am a Pertama Maduthara Luritja Tribe from Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs Station) which is located South West of Alice Springs in Central Australia. I was born in Alice Springs in 1954 and grew up at Tempe Downs until the Government started to remove half caste kids from their families and put them in mission boarding homes. I was taken to Hermannsburg (Ntaria) where I did my schooling. It is here that my love for art started when I saw the Namatjira brothers doing their painting in Ntaria and around tourism camps such as Glen Helen and Palm Valley. I have always wanted to be an artist and I just hope that my work will be recognised. No work is the same each piece is unique in its own right. I have created artwork based on my stories: my work on Mulga Spinifex Country, my country where I grew up and lived – Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs), the oasis in the Desert at Urrampinyi, running Waters at Irrmakara, spiritual keepers of our land, my dreaming – the Thorny Devil, animals in my country, paintings depicting women’s ceremonial site (business) and more.”

Special Project 

2014         Collage workshop with Roland Souliere, Alice Springs, NT

2019         Lumen Prints Workshop with AGNSW, Alice Springs, NT

2019         Cicada Press etching workshop, Sydney, NSW

Group exhibitions

• 2019
  Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurn-kanha, Itla Itla Nurn-kanha (Our family, our country, our legacy), Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide SA
• 2019
  Pmarra Nurna-Kananhala untha-lapp-urma (Walking through country), Hazelhurst Art centre, Sydney, NSW.
• 2018
  Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT
• 2018
  The Endurance of Bush Medicine, Medical History Museum, University of Melbourne, VIC
• 2014
  Women Artisits of the Hermannsburg School of Art, The Residency, Alice Springs, NT
• 2011
  Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, NSW
• 2011
  The University Gallery, Newcastle, NSW
• 2011
  Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT
• 2011
  Norpa, Lismore, NSW
• 2010
  Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide, SA

Collections

• 2017 Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD
• 2019 Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW), Sydney
• 2018 Medical History Museum, University of Melbourne, VIC