Ghost Gum 1948

Albert Namatjira painted this watercolour, Ghost Gum, with what looks like incredible speed and confidence. Look how he gets the colour of the outback light just right: that hazy blue that always feels so incredibly distant. The thing I love about watercolour is how alive it feels, like watching someone thinking. And here, Namatjira really gets a sense of the Australian landscape down on the page, the ghost gum against the blue of the mountains. It’s all about layering, from the thick trunk in the foreground to the distant, scrubby bushes and the way the light catches the foliage. There's a real openness here, too. It’s like Namatjira is saying that the landscape is always open to new interpretations, much like the work of his contemporary, Georgia O’Keeffe. It makes you want to just keep looking at it, and thinking.