Hawkesbury I

This watercolour reveals the enduring influence of Cezanne on Valerie’s Strong’s art, as taught to her by John Passmore, one of her most important teachers at the National Art School, and in her own words, ‘…the greatest teacher Australia has had’ (‘A rare sensibility’, p.10). The breaking down of the landscape into notational suggestions of light and colour, and the compression of three-dimensional space within the picture plane allows the viewer to immerse themselves within this watery rendering of the Hawkesbury River and its heavily wooded shores.