Willy grew up in the bush and was brought with his family to Haasts Bluff in the late 1950's. In 1976 he started painting for Papunya Tula where he emerged as one of the most respected of the senior Pintupi painters.

He is the brother of the respected artists George "Hairbrush" Tjungarrayi and Yala Yala Gibbs.

He paints stories linked to the Tingari Song Cycles. His senior position in the community entitles him to paint the most secret and significant parts of the Tingari stories, many of which cannot be revealed to the unitiiated.

He paints mostly with a restrained palette, with irregular lines of very fine, pale dotting on a coloured background. Thus resulting in an elegant, refined painting of linear images.

His work is much saught after and has been collected into many private and public collections.