Tim Johnson (b. 1947) is a Sydney artist whose most significant contribution to this field is his sustained engagement with Papunya painting. After seeing the artists' work in Sydney in 1977, he began visiting Papunya in 1980, where Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Tim Leura, Michael Nelson Jagamara and others invited him to paint with them, and he sought their permission to adopt the dotting technique. With his then-wife, the Western Desert scholar Vivien Johnson, he formed one of the finest private collections of Papunya painting, and made collaborative works with Turkey Tolson, Michael Nelson Jagamara and Clifford Possum. His borrowing drew appropriation charges in the late 1980s. Whatever one's view, his work documented, promoted and partnered with the founding masters at a moment when their art was still little known. This is a study for the work in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra