Mangeraka and Hunter 1939

Albert Namatjira made this watercolor painting of a landscape, the land he knew well, and the animals and people that lived there. The colors are muted, like the land has been bleached by the sun, or the painting has faded with time. I can imagine Namatjira looking out at this scene. It's a view of a flat-topped mountain that dominates the land. I can see that he’s laid down thin washes of color, one after the other, building up the forms slowly. I like the way the kangaroo seems to be watching the hunter. Or maybe it's watching us. Either way, it makes me think about how we look at the world around us, and how artists show us how to see things in new ways. Painters learn from each other across time, like a big conversation that never ends. Each one teaches us how to see and how to feel a little bit more.