My friend, the fine Australian landscape painter Roland Hemmert, is opening a new exhibition of paintings and pastels at Links House, Bowral, on Saturday 30 July.

I’ve seen most of the images from this show as they came into the world, retreated sometimes, and came again, more boldly, more truly; there are images here from some places very dear to Hemmert, stations on his artistic pilgrimage: the Flinders Ranges, Alice Springs, Broken Hill and the Blue Mountains. And I can tell you these works represent not only Roland’s most powerful and stirring work, but the very best Australian landscape art I’ve seen.

So don’t miss the show, Interior Journeys, which runs at Links House through August. The opening happens a 4 pm. RSVP by 25 July:

The launch is followed at 6 pm by a special event, Landscape as the Beloved, in which Roland, Deborah Bird Rose (Wild Dog Dreaming and other books) and I will share a conversation of the role of art (in words and on canvas) in remembering the lovely, much put-upon Earth, re-enchanting the land, reawakening it within us and re-animating us within it. We’ll be talking about art as an act, one among many, of love for country—one upon which the richness of our own human lives, along with the integrity of the places that keep us, depend. Debbie is the founder of the Kangaloon Group (http://www.kangaloon.org), whose work focuses on finding a place, urgently, for art and philosophy, in the discussion we are having, not especially well right now, about how we are all (not only we humans) to live well and stay hopeful and promote beauty in an era of ecological crisis.

Links House is at 17 Links Road, Bowral. See you there.

Roland will speak about his art practice, in particular the making of the works in his new show. Debbie and I will talk to the ethical and aesthetic ideas suggested by the idea of relating to the landscape as if it were the Beloved, and we’ll read from our books, Wild Dog Dreaming, in her case, and Fire Diary and The Blue Plateau, in mine.

Landscape as the Beloved includes dinner, wine, tea and coffee, for $60. Seats are limited and bookings essential: ; 02 48621077.