Warm evening, Templestowe 1890

David Davies made this painting, “Warm evening, Templestowe,” using oil on canvas. This was a typical fine art material in the late 19th century. But notice how Davies uses the inherent qualities of the oil paint itself: its viscosity, its capacity to be thinned down into washes, and layered up into thick strokes. These techniques capture the subtle, shifting light of the Australian landscape. The field seems to vibrate with heat, an effect he achieves by layering different tones of browns, yellows, and greens. The loose brushwork is essential here. It suggests the vastness of the open land, and the labor involved in tilling it. Touches like the bare trees on the horizon add to a feeling of being in nature. Davies elevated landscape painting into high art, partly by attending so closely to the inherent qualities of his medium. He understood that the material and process are just as important as the subject matter.