My garden

"I repaint other people's paintings. See that there? That's 'Bailed up'. You know, Tom Roberts. I've just taken the figures out and repainted the background."
- Fred Williams 1969

One of Williams' greatest works, 'My garden' was painted in direct response to Tom Roberts' 'Bailed up', underlining Williams' strong allegiance to the Heidelberg School and especially to Tom Roberts, the Australian painter he loved most of all. In a singularly profound homage from one artist to another, Williams transmuted the golden glare of a relatively gentle New England landscape into his own painterly expression of the hot red heart of the continent; acting out his long-held declaration that 'Bailed up' was the most important landscape painting in this country.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000