Kngwarreye created her own original artistic style, her paintings between 1989 and 1991 had many dots, sometimes lying on top of each other, of varying sizes and colours, as seen in Wild Potato Dreaming (1990).

Kngwarreye went through many different individual styles in her short career as a professional painter. She described her paintings as having lots of meaning to do with all the aspects of the community’s life including the yam plants. In one of the few well known criticisms of her own work she said her paintings mean: “Whole lot, that’s all, whole lot, awelye, arlatyeye, ankerrthe, ntange, dingo, ankerre, intekwe, anthwerle and kame. That’s what I paint: whole lot.” (”My dreaming, pencil yam, mountain devil lizard, grass seed, dingo, emu, small plant emu food, green bean and yam seed”).

The success and demand for Kngwarreye’s paintings caused her many problems within the community as she tried to maintain her individual identity. The myth of the woman in her 80s who had never been outside the central desert becoming a great painter was one reason for her popularity. She had in fact, been to Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Canberra, though this was only after she had became famous. Eight paintings by Emily Kngwarreye in the Sotheby’s winter auction of 2000 were sold for $507,550, with Awelye (1989) selling for $156,500.

On 23/05/07 the painting Earth’s Creation was sold for AUD$1,056,000 at a Deutscher-Menzies’ Sydney auction, setting a new record for Aboriginal Artwork (Source: Sydney Morning Herald), Mbantua Gallery was the successful bidder (Source: Arts Hub Australia).

She rarely spent any of the money she got from her works herself, or when she did, it was to buy gifts for friends and relatives. She was at some times supplying a car a week to her community, in a society that did not believe in individual ownership, but the sharing of property within the group. Often she had to give up chances of retirement to please her kin and family, and continue to provide money.