I joined an outback art tour and got a masterclass in relaxation

“It’s probably a bit intimidating going to see Albert Namatjira paintings before you have your first ever watercolour lesson,” tour guide and artist Anna Dakin says with some understatement.

I’m no artist, that’s for sure. So the master’s graduate from London’s Royal College of Art will have her work cut out for her in my first ever plein air art class in the Northern Territory’s West MacDonnell Ranges.

Namatjira made his Arrernte Country famous. Its rugged red and purple-hued rock faces, and stark white ghost gums, hung on the living room walls of countless Australian homes in the 1940s and ’50s.

Before we head into the outback, paintbrush in hand, we visit the Araluen Art Centre in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) for some inspiration. The show Desert Mob is on, an annual exhibition to celebrate desert culture and First Nations artists curated by Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman Hetti Perkins, a former head of Indigenous art at the Art Gallery of NSW, and Luritja, Warumungu and Yawuru curator Aspen Beattie.

Not only do we get an up-close look at some Namatjira paintings, there are colourful works by the potters of his Hermannsburg mission and renderings of the landscape by artists from 32 Indigenous arts centres. All are for sale, too, with profits going back to their communities. We see black cockatoos, dingoes, emus, galahs and waterholes up close on canvas before we’ve even left the city.

As we climb into Dakin’s specially fitted out and comfortable Landcruiser, or “troopy”, there’s a light sprinkle of rain. We notice a bright red Sturt’s desert pea blooming in the car park garden, the wild flowers often erupt into vivid scarlet carpets after a good downpour. Dakin says the earthy scent of rain falling on dry soil is known as “petrichor”, a phrase first coined by Australian mineralogist Richard Thomas. It fills our nostrils and heightens our senses for the 20-minute drive to the towering cliffs of Simpsons Gap.

As we drive through western Arrernte Country, we see a Namatjira landscape everywhere we look. Ever the artist, Dakin encourages us, as she drives, to seek out the small details en route. Like the flowers – billy buttons and paper daisies – that dot our path, and the bright orange markings of the zebra finches as they fly past.

She explains how she fell in love with this place as an art student on holidays from London, when she decided to hike the Larapinta Trail, with a backpack full of paints, wearing, perhaps unwisely, an old pair of Doc Martens.

As she camped out the first night under the stars, she was woken by a dingo licking the sleep out of her eyes. She took it as one of the many signs she would return to this place of jagged mountains and live and paint here. Which she does now, running outback art classes.

On the short hike into Simpsons Gap, we don ponchos, but the rain stays away. As Dakin sets us up with the materials we need to paint, on what is now part of the Larapinta Track, she pulls out a very useful viewfinder, which helps us narrow down the details of the scene we’ll attempt to paint. As well as a battered old copy of a book of Namatjira landscapes.

She explains how his distinct approach to painting was rooted in Western art techniques taught to him by Australian artist Rex Battarbee, which helped him master perspective and depth to capture his Country. His vibrant colour palette and dry-brush technique created the rich textured details on tree trunks and arid earth, in contrast to the symbolic aerial views in most Indigenous art.

No matter how much of Dakin’s advice I try to take on board, or how studiously I focus on the details of Namatjira’s wizened ghost gums or shaded rocks in the book, my attempt at art looks little better than my kindergarten finger painting. No matter. With a delicious cheese board, a glorious waterhole view, and Dakin’s useful tips, three hours pass in what seems like a few minutes.

It’s been a masterclass in relaxation for me. I’m just grateful to be on Country rather than on a keyboard, and I return with new respect for Namatjira’s artistry and his homeland. But I’m also happy to leave the painting of it in his, and his family’s, capable hands.

DETAILS Simpsons Gap beginner-friendly watercolour tours (about three hours) cost from $175, which includes materials, cheese board and drinks. arttoursofaustralia.com

The writer travelled courtesy of Tourism and Events Northern Territory