Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Burnt landscape 1968
oil on canvas
signed: l.r.
183.0 (h) x 152.5 (w) cm
Westpac Corporate Art Collection
© estate of Fred Williams

In February of 1968 raging bushfires drastically transformed the landscape at Upwey, around Williams home. Over the ensuing months and years Williams painted many images of the fires and their aftermath, both in his studio and out in the burnt landscape.

In Burnt landscape 1968, Williams conveys the scorched earth, enlivened by the hot orange-red sparks of a fire still threatening to reignite. The charred ground is set against a strip of pale sky, the fine white lines suggesting that many of the trees have become ghosts of their former selves.