Palm Valley, James Range 1939

Albert Namatjira's 'Palm Valley, James Range' is a watercolor painting, and it's a lesson in seeing what's already there. The earth tones, those reds and browns, they build up slowly, one wash over another, like the very geology of the place. See how he lets the white of the paper peek through? It’s like sunlight hitting the rocks just so. There is a certain economy to it, a quietness. Look at the way he’s handled the foliage: these tiny flicks and dabs of color that somehow coalesce into bushes and trees. And then there’s that palm, standing tall in the center. It is almost like a sentinel, a witness to the slow, steady work of time. Namatjira’s watercolors bring to mind the work of someone like Agnes Martin, where the act of repetition, of layering, becomes a kind of meditation. With Namatjira, painting becomes a way of paying attention, of honoring a landscape that’s both ancient and ever-changing.