In 1974, Janet Dawson moved from Sydney to Binalong in regional New South Wales. Inspired by her new rural surroundings, she began to embrace more flowing forms, shifting her focus away from the hard-edge painting that she was known for in the 1960s. Describing this transition, Dawson said, ‘In the 60s I accepted flat painting, but then I got bored with it. I wanted depth and optical movement.’

In The moon and Pepper’s ghost 1979, Dawson combines her understanding of abstraction and interest in landscape, representing the moon, sky and ground through a series of intersecting and shifting geometric planes. Her title references the ‘Pepper’s ghost’ theatre technique, popularised in the 1800s, in which light and reflections are used to create the appearance of ghostly apparitions onstage. Alluding to patterns of light in nature and the tricks they play on the human eye, this painting speaks to the illusions that occur in everyday life.