Australia 1927 - 82

What he makes, not what he sees, is the centre and focus of his activity - although what he makes always proceeds from what he has seen.

Patrick McCaughey, Fred Williams, Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, p.16.

Historical Context
Upwey landscape depicts a part of the Victorian landscape which was wiped out by the 1962 bush-fires which were the worst on record since the fires of 1939.

1964 saw the introduction of National Service on the basis of two years' full-time service, conscription becoming a major issue in the elections of 1966, 1969 and 1972. In 1965 the Robert Menzies Government announced the despatch of an Australian battalion to South Vietnam.

The surge of nationalism was particularly strong in literature in 1964 with the publication of The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads (ed. Russell Ward), The Penguin Australian Song Book (ed. John Manifold) and The Literature of Australia (ed. Geoffrey Dutton). Donald Horne's discussion of Australian popular culture, The Lucky Country: Australia in the Sixties was published in 1964 and the following year Let's Talk Strine, a parody of spoken Australian, was released. On 15 July 1964, The Australian became Australia's first national daily newspaper.

Williams was always conscious of the strong tradition of landscape in Australian art and saw his work as an extension of that tradition in the context of twentieth-century art in general' (1). While Williams was developing his Australian landscape imagery, other artists were exploring aspects of Australian identity. Two landmark exhibitions which were similarly concerned with national identity were Recent Australian Sculpture and Young Australian Painters in which Williams was represented and which toured Japan.

(1) James Mollison, A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery, Canbera, 1989, p. 89.

Background
From 1943 to 1947 Williams studied at the Gallery School, Melbourne, at first part-time and then full-time from 1945. Williams also attended lessons under George Bell, who had his own art school in Melbourne. Bell was a conservative modern artist but a very influential teacher. Between 1951 and 1956, Williams studied at the Chelsea School of Art, London, and in 1954 he did an etching course at the Central School of Arts and Craft. After mainly working with figures in his paintings and etchings, once back in Melbourne in 1957 he began painting landscapes, which remained the major theme in his art. By the 1970s he had established himself as Australia's major contemporary landscape artist and was also recognized as one of Australia's best portrait artists.

Williams moved into his house at Upwey, in the Dandenong Ranges overlooking Melbourne, in August 1963, and began working on gouaches based on the surrounding landscapes. Upwey landscape is among the first of the Upwey series of oil paintings done between 1965 and 1966.

Influence
Williams absorbed what it meant to be an Australian artist during his period as an art student. Exhibitions of major Australian artists were held at the National Gallery of Victoria during this period; they included Ramsay, Streeton, McCubbin, Roberts and Bunny. From the teachings of Bell, Williams' art developed its underlying solid and balanced nature.

Various local and overseas artists have played an influential role in Williams' art, but as an art form expressionism, both figurative and abstract, gave Williams the ability to put meaning and emotion into his painterly gestures. His own experimentation, especially with watercolour, also introduced the freedom of the brush mark, independent of outline or linearity, into his work.

Technique and Materials
The oil paintings by Williams are mostly studio works developed from gouaches, watercolours, oil sketches and occasionally drawings done on location. From these works, often complete in themselves, his studio landscape paintings and etchings would be derived. Williams worked on a series of paintings related to a particular location over an extended period, sometimes overlapping another series related to a different location and painting style. During any one series he would return to his motif in nature, making further studies to retain his freshness. Each of his paintings had a slow gestation period from initial observation to finished work.

The Painting
Rather than painting the landscape realistically, Williams was more concerned with exploring and creating a visual language through which he could express the character or essence of a particular Australian location in an inventive manner. After much experimentation and analysis he devised his original painterly markings. In Upwey landscape the growth of the bush and its unique characteristics dominate, rather than the land itself.

The wide aerial view exposes a hillside with large open areas of space in the foreground and large bodies of colour representing trees. The closer these bodies of colour come to the horizon line the smaller and more compact they become, thus pictorial recession is realized. As the trees reach the horizon line scattered light appears through them.

Williams' chaotic painterly tree markings represent the reality of the bush, for gum trees grow in a random manner in their natural environment. The twisted dabs of paint have a sense of movement and vigour and, just like gum trees, they have a remarkable energy and growth potential. The colour of the trees, with their blue-black appearance, shows that bushfires have at some stage been in the area, and yet out of their destructive power, life and energy emerge and once again dominate. The overall rugged, earthy colours of the trees and land capture the reality of this Upwey location.