Occupying the middle ground between realism and abstraction, Philip Hunter’s works have taken the once genteel and conservative genre of landscape painting by the scruff of the neck and given it a good shake.

In Hunter’s works, the landscape needs to be read rather than just looked at and admired; it is a realm for reflection and interpretation. His depictions of his native Wimmera, Tower Hill, Kakadu and Acheron simultaneously reveal historical layers of geology, indigenous habitation and farming practice, and suggest metaphysical presence in an apparently empty landscape.

In the late 1980s, Hunter’s Kakadu works marked the start of his use of a semi-aerial perspective as he focused on the underlying land formations rather than the verdant vegetation of the forest’s surface. The 'Archeron Works' saw the appearance of white lines and markings which later characterised 'Plains'. In the $25,000 work 'Tidal Surge – Dust Wave No.5', (oil on linen, 122cm x 107cm; pictured) from his most recent exhibition, 'Lines in the Dirt', Hunter’s trademark swirls of white lines hovering on and above the curvature of the earth become ‘nets of memory’ whose undulations show how water once shaped a parched land.

Hunter has been seen as bridging the void between indigenous artists such as Rover Thomas and Emily Kame Kngwarreye and landscape greats like Drysdale, Boyd and Nolan. Fellow artist John Olsen has no doubt of his importance proclaiming him ‘the way forward for Australian painting’. For the moment Hunter is happy to just ride the wave of success as show after show of his work sells out. But, he says, ‘You can’t start thinking this is how it’s going to be forever, because it’s not.’ Then again …