iona Somerville was born in Adelaide, where nineteenth century European settlers built a stately colonial city on the fertile coastal plain, surrounding it with a formal ring of parks, the town plan emphasising the cool of the Torrens River. The city climbs up its surrounding hills; it seems every citizen is a gardener. But however domesticated, europeanised – the place is circled by the South Australian desert, and the light of the city is the clear bright desert light that bleaches colour. How to convey that relentless light, its effect on perception? The problem remains with artists from South Australia, wherever they go: Jeffrey Smart took the glare of the coastal plain to Italy, Hans Heysen gave us the mists and shifting light of the hills; Clifton Pugh’s South Australian desert dealt
