Central Otago 1969

Rita Angus painted this landscape of Central Otago, in New Zealand using watercolor – which makes me think about how she might have worked, layering color and light. I feel like I’m there, in a dream version of a real place. And I start to think about Angus, what was she thinking? The way she simplifies the forms, everything feels essential. The mountains become these almost geometric shapes, echoed in the rolling hills below. It's like she's not just painting what she sees, but what she understands about the landscape, its underlying structure. There’s this realness to it and the color choices, with their yellows and browns. I can feel the dryness of the land, and the heat too. She's like Cezanne, but for New Zealand! It makes you wonder about your relationship to your own environment, right? And how you might capture it, with paint, with words, or whatever. Artists, we're always looking, always learning from each other.