Following in Albert Namatjira’s footsteps, other members of his family were encouraged to take up painting. Among the first to join this growing movement were the ‘sons of Namatjira’ — Enos, Oscar, Ewald, Keith and Maurice, and Namatjira’s eldest grandson, Gabriel. Each of these young men started their career as a ‘camelboy’ or porter for Albert and the more senior artists at the time. As their understanding of landscape and materials grew, each joined the painting group.

Each of these Namatjira men received close tutelage from Albert, but each managed to find a style uniquely their own. Enos was perhaps the most technically gifted of the sons. He painted in a soft palette, often using long, rhythmic brushstrokes which read like waves moving across a solid plane. These striations were deployed in a much more subtle way than the likes of Otto Pareroultja or Richard Moketarinja. Oscar painted in a similar though more classical style with muted colours, which evoke the softer hues of early morning light warming up the semi-arid landscape. Ewald, who had accidentally shot himself in the eye, often painted rich, warm landscapes that appeared to embody the burning, angry energy of wildfire. Keith tended to use stricter, straighter lines than his brothers, which tend to highlight the actual cracks and crags in the physical forms of the monoliths in the Western MacDonnell Ranges rather than using a more rhythmic, moving technique. Keith and Maurice often painted in a similar style which highlighted the more open, arid aspects of country, rather than focussing on specific sites, which was also a feature of many of the works of Benjamin Landara, son-in-law of Albert.

Feature image: Ewald Namatjira / Arrernte people / Australia NT 1930–84 / (Ghost gums and mountain range) / Bequest of Cedric Powne 1979 / © Estate of Ewald Namatjira/Licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency