She told herself that this was her intention in going there; however, she soon understood it had been different. These visits were always convivial, slightly formal, a way of showing him thanks and respect, and maybe also her maturity—the risks she was taking. Rather than a failure or a half-failure, she usually brought him a partial tentative success, something she was not quite sure of, in order to see it through his experienced, severe eyes. Perhaps now considering her an independent artist, he was more forthcoming with praise, though he was sometimes silenced too. Her style, it seemed to her, was every day more particular and more itself, unwilling to be tied to his or anyone else’s method. She wondered what he was painting. The last time she had seen any of his work was at the Group Exhibition. Some gum studies done at Eltham had fascinated her, aroused a kind of recognition. It did indeed appear that he was onto something new in those; he really was setting about remaking Australian landscape painting, making it, on its own terms, afresh.
