Red Bluff, Central Australia - Kathleen France

Albert Namatjira, the founder of the Hermannsburg watercolour painting school, introduced painting to number of Aranda artists including his sons Enos and Oscar and the three Pareroultja brothers who joined him on his painting expeditions. This was the first significant transitional art movement to emerge from Aboriginal Australia.

Interestingly the majority of works painted most of this desert country are painted from a slightly elevated point of view, as if looking down, ever so slightly on the landscape. They capture the subtleties of colour as the desert changes from the soft tones of summer heat, to the rich colours of the early morning and late evening light. The majority of the paintings lack a central focal point yet, a visual emphasis on the edges holds the composition in balance without either a dominance of forms near the centre or a hierarchy of forms.