Peggy was born 1941 on Newry Station in the far north-west of the Northern Territory. Peggy’s father, Frank Moore, worked as a stockman on the cattle station. She then relocated with her mother Dianah Dingil to Ivanhoe Station in the East Kimberley (Western Australia), and attended school until the age of 15. Old Argyle Station was her next home, when she married Alan Griffiths, a stockman and drover and now an Internationally renowned artist.
Peggy and Alan reside in the largest town in the East Kimberley, Kununurra. She commenced carving artefacts in 1985, and soon after progressed to painting with the first art centre in the region, Waringarri Arts, where she is now a Senior artist and former Chairperson. Peggy is also a member of the Executive Committee of The Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA). A primary function of the ANKAAA charter is to protect the rights of artists and promote ethical business practice in the Indigenous art industry.
Peggys paintings are delicate in colour and style, almost photo quality in execution. She uses natural ochre pigments with immaculate fine brushwork to depict her Traditional country. Peggys quote – Thats the spirit, still alive in my country. I paint this country because I know it and because I want other people to know this is my country.
Her list of collections and exhibitions is impressive Peggy was the first Indigenous artist to win the Fremantle Print Award in 1995. In November 2008, six very large works by Peggy were showcased in the prestigious East Meets West exhibition in Perth, Western Australia. The paintings depicted her traditional country in the Keep River National Park area, on the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. At the opening, one piece was immediately acquired by Parliament House Collection, Canberra.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2003
Art of the East Kimberley, Short St. Gallery, Broome
2002
Kimberley Ochre, Darwin
Short on Size, Short St. Gallery, Broome
Heyson Prize, Adelaide
Love Your Work – 30 year Exhibition, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
Warrgebarenkoo, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
Cossack Art Awards, Cossack, WA
2001
Groundwork, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
Past Modern, Short St. Gallery at Australia Square, Sydney
2000
Greenhill Galleries, Perth
Redback Art, Brisbane
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
High on Art, Melbourne
Cowara House, Cowaramup, WA
1999
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra
1997
East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra
1996
Fremantle Art Centre, Fremantle
1995
Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Parliament House Collection, Canberra
Edith Cowan University Collection, Perth
Royal Perth Hospital Collection, Perth
Northern Territory University Collection, Darwin
Fremantle Art Centre Collection, Fremantle