Ghost Gums

This refined watercolour elegantly conveys the beauty and vastness of Australia's interior. It demonstrates Namatjira's mastery in depicting the radiant afternoon sun, with subtle coloured light in the shadows. As they recide into the distance, the dark red rocks and hills of Central Australia gradually become mauve, then blue. In Ghost Gums Namatjira has employed one of his most successful and renowned compositions; a cluster of large ghost gums in the left foreground, with a smaller tree towards the middle distance defining the right of the frame, leading the viewer's eye back and across the flat middle ground to the monumental red hill in the distance. Namatjira's painting offers an accuracy of observation of the strange 'red centre'.