Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Chopped trees III 1967
oil on canvas
signed lower left
91.7 (h) x 173.3 (w) cm
Private collection
© estate of Fred Williams

In this work Williams suggests the beauty and subtlety of the landscape in delicate painterly washes approximating watercolours. These passages of luminous pastel colour are set against open spaces suggesting the disappearance of something that meant a lot to him. As he noted in 1967: ‘There is more and more activity in the gully – there is a continual swing of the axe and chainsaw – I guess the prettiness cannot last much longer – and this makes me very sad – it is the reason we came to live here.’