Sandhills 2007

Kathleen Petyarre's painting, Sandhills, is like a landscape seen through the filter of memory and feeling. The canvas is almost entirely covered in a dense, reddish-brown ground, which Petyarre has built up with countless tiny strokes, a kind of meditative process. Across this field of colour, she’s laid down thin, horizontal lines of ochre paint. They seem to float on the surface like subtle echoes or mirages, and they create a sense of depth and movement within the work. The texture of the canvas is also important. You can almost feel the dryness of the desert in the matte surface. It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's delicate lines and grids, but Petyarre brings a totally different cultural perspective. There’s a looseness and freedom to the application of paint that reminds us that art is about the journey, not just the destination. It’s about seeing, feeling, and responding to the world around us in all its complexity and beauty.