Near Ormiston Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia 1955

This is Albert Namatjira's watercolor, "Near Ormiston Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia." The way he layers the washes makes me think about the process of seeing, how we piece together impressions to form a view. Look at the mountain on the left, how the light seems to ripple across its surface. Namatjira builds up this sense of form not with heavy outlines, but with delicate gradations of color – purples, browns, and hints of blue. You can almost feel the heat radiating from the rocks, the dryness of the air. See that lone tree clinging to the mountainside? It's like a little burst of life amidst this ancient landscape. Namatjira reminds me of someone like Agnes Martin, in the sense of finding the sublime in the everyday. His paintings aren't just depictions, they're meditations on place, on light, and on the very act of seeing.