INSPIRE: Albany Indigenous artist Doug Roberts has creative passion for blending football and art on canvas

Noongar artist Doug Roberts started painting after watching a family member and his spur of the moment decision to give it a try turned into a lifelong hobby that has been a way to give back to his community. Roberts is a respected Albany local well known in the WA football scene but more recently his passion for vibrant dot paintings has led to combining those two loves in designing game jerseys and paintings with club logos and colours. “I saw my cousin painting, while I was at his house, and I was watching what he was doing and thought I could give it a go,” he said. “I had a crack at a smaller canvas to start with, and I was using the back of a pencil and things like that to make my dots at that point. “It started off that way, and then I got my wife to order me some proper dotting tools, and now I’ve been doing it for just over three years, and I keep painting and I keep getting better. “I try to smash out two to three paintings when I’m on break. “I’m trying to get my kids involved in it as well, and keep the tradition going.” Roberts works fly-in-fly-out at an iron ore mine in the Pilbara and says painting acts as a creative outlet and a peaceful break from work and the fast pace of everyday life. “I absolutely love it, it’s a great hobby it takes you away from work and other things in life, I just chuck in my headphones in and go with the flow,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll be painting all night, and there’s now projects I’ve been able to do that I can give back to things I was part of in my younger years, like Claremont Football Club and Mt Lockyer Primary School in Albany.” Roberts created pieces for the school with the dual-naming of its new buildings in 2023, with the vibrant works representing the learning and meeting areas at the school and the journey students follow over the years. “I gave something back to them, and that will be there forever,” he said. Claremont Football Club chief executive officer Darcy Coffey commissioned Roberts to design this year’s WAFL Indigenous round jerseys for the club, in collaboration with fellow Tigers veteran Andrew Taylor. Roberts played 54 matches for the Tigers between 2001 and 2004, and Taylor played from 1999 until 2006. Roberts said designing and painting for clothing was steep a learning curve, but a welcome challenge to contribute his art to his former football club. “It was such a privilege to be able to do because my nephew Robbie plays there, he’s in the colts side there now, and I used to play there when I was younger,” Roberts said. “They brought us down there for one of the games into the change rooms and we lined up with the team when they did the coin toss, and it was a very special thing.” Roberts also created a painting to hang in their club rooms, and a similar one for Railways Football Club incorporating their club logo and colours, which hangs in their Albany club rooms. He said his inspirations come from all areas of his life, and he tries to make each piece as personal to its recipient as he can. “I get ideas, a lot of the time from the person or the group I’m making the art for,” he said. “I like to get other people involved, even with the bigger projects, and it’s little things where people can see or recognise my artwork and I can get it out there.” A mentor to many young Noongar men in the Great Southern, Roberts said he was passionate about continuing his hobby and taking on projects in both Perth and Albany, where he said he hopes to return to live in the future. “You never know, anything can happen with these kind of things,” he said. “I’d love to be able to design more footy jumpers and things like that, and every project I get to try something new and make my art a bit better, and I hope I can keep doing it and keep improving.”