By his own admission, while others may have planted the seed, it was Grey-Smith who shaped and adapted these concepts to fit his own needs, drawing inspiration from the harsh Australian landscape that he so deeply cherished. He journeyed extensively across it, absorbing its distinctive and rugged features.

There is a timeless quality to ... Grey-Smith’s works, which not only reach into the past but also extend into the future. He skilfully blends influences from European artists—such as Cezanne, Rouault, and de Stael—and transforms them into something distinctly Australian, bearing his unmistakable signature.

“Evening on the Hills” stands as a rare example of tenebrism applied to a landscape. Here, darkness dominates, with stark bands of light accentuating the vibrant red earth and the glowing green of the shrubbery. In this piece, Grey-Smith again draws inspiration from European traditions, particularly from Renaissance painters, to capture a scene he encountered regularly in the Australian outback.

This is a rare depiction of the Australian landscapeshowing Grey-Smith’s willingness to experiment.