Fred WILLIAMS
Australia 1927 – Australia 1982
England 1951-56

Forest of gum trees III 1968-70
oil on canvas
signed lower right
183.5 (h) x 152.6 (w) cm
Private collection
© estate of Fred Williams

In Forest of gum trees III Williams experimented with the idea of representing an open-ended forest. Suggestions of plant forms are drawn in paint, gently touched or twirled with little flecks of vibrant colour scattered across the canvas. The ground appears translucent, imparting a feeling of traces of time in the landscape. There is no horizon-line but rather a continuous, uninterrupted plane. It may be read either as an extensive space or as a close-up view of a particular aspect of the landscape.

In 1970 Williams noted how he had been wrestling for years withthe forest paintings of this period. Yet this was a work of which he was particularly proud. He kept it in his collection. Late in his life he wrote on the stretcher bar on the back of the painting, ‘My Best Painting’.