Mount Giles, MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia 1958

Albert Namatjira made this watercolor painting of Mount Giles and the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, but the date is unknown. You can really see the touch of the brush in this one, can’t you? The way the colors bleed softly into each other feels so natural. Namatjira’s palette is really interesting, it’s not what you’d expect from a landscape. The blues and purples he uses for the mountains and shadows give everything this cool, dreamy feeling. And look at the foreground, those rocks are almost glowing with a reddish-brown hue. I’m drawn to the way he handles the sky. It’s not just blue; it’s a mix of grays and whites that suggest a vastness, a real sense of atmosphere. That's the thing about watercolor, it’s all about letting the paint do its thing, and I think Namatjira really understood that. It’s like he’s not just painting a place, but a feeling. It reminds me of Charles Burchfield who was doing something similar, on paper, in America. And just like that, art becomes a conversation across time and space.