Every work day, I drive past this 11 metre wind-driven whirling object which appeared on the median strip of Yarra Glen Drive three years ago. At last I've troubled myself to find out that it's Dinornis maximus, aong-extinct bird species and a "Kinetic sculpture" by New Zealander Phil Price, a "wind-powered ballet in the sky". Price says he seeks a "combination of movement that provides a flow and a dance".

It's large, but motorists can ill afford to glance at it, for it's close to a busy and potentially dangerous junction.

It moves in the slightest breeze, and the curved blades change colour as they move, yellow and orange against blue. But you share this experience only if you take your life in your hands, walk up to it, and spend time looking. Its siting is the source of of its problems. It's impossible to park and walk over to take a look, and by the time it catches my attention, I'm already somewhere else.

Yesterday the National Gallery of Australia installed a 2 metre replica of the Angel of the North, by British sculptor Anthony Gormley, in its sculpture garden. Gormley made five cast iron maquettes of his massive statue. This one, made of cast iron, was donated to the Gallery last year by James and Jacqui Erskine. The 1998 Angel of the North, 20 metres tall with wings 54 metres across, overlooks a motorway at Gateshead northern England and is seem by millions of people as they drive by.

Did the Gallery know that today is Michaelmas, the feast of Michael and all Angels? For centuries, artists have struggled to depict angels, spiritual beings known to us in many and mysterious ways.

Byzantine, c13th Icon with the Archangel Gabriel, tempera and gold on wood panel with raised borders, 105 x 75 cm, Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai.

I do like the work of Australian landscape artist, Philip Wolfhagen. This is his Autumn equinox: the loss of the sun, 2009 (200 x 160 cm), recently added to the collections of the National Gallery of Australia. There is an article about it by Miriam Kelly in the Gallery's artonview, 61, autumn 2010.

Philip Wolfhagen is widely regarded as one of Australia's most significant contemporary landscape painters. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize in 2007 and is part of a new generation of painters who are presenting fresh visions of the Australian landscape and rethinking the traditions of this age-old genre. His works, inspired by the atmospheric landscape of northern Tasmania, explore the representation of time and natural phenomena.

[. . . ] Wolfhagen draws inspiration from the regions surrounding his home in northern Tasmania, many of which he has known since childhood. [. . .] Across the darkened paddock depicted in Autumn equinox; the loss of the sun, our eyes are drawn to the glimmer of a fire and wisps of smoke—a suggestion of distant human activity. In his 2005 monograph on the artist, Peter Timms states that Wolfhagen is one of few contemporary Australian painters to explore ideas of the picturesque within the cultivated landscape, despite there being little romance left in rural toil. Wolfhagen's atmospheric explorations of this subject are underpinned by a love of both the wild and changed landscape and, most significantly, a strong sense of our responsibilities towards the natural world.

This work is on a scale just large enough to envelope our vision and provokes an immediate reaction from the senses. We are momentarily transported from the gallery by the illusion of realism. Yet, the sense of profound mystery this work also possesses gives us the impression that Wolfhagen is seeking to draw us further beyond the realm of the physical world. On close inspection, the initial illusion is dissolved and abstracted by the exquisite painterly quality of Wolfhagen’s mark making.

The NGA's show of masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay is at an end after 467,000 visitors, which probably means many more than 467,000 Australian opinions about the worthiness of the show. I'm glad that, in the second-last week of the show, James and I were able to get timed-entry tickets at 9.00am. Otherwise, I doubt that I would have bothered with the queues and the crowds. A gallery staffer told me that 460 people were admitted at a time. We took our time and enjoyed the pictures, took a pass-out, had coffee, then returned for a second look. By that time there were so many people that it was hard to see the pictures well.

Of course there were many fabulous things to see and try to contemplate. Here are three of the dozen or so that especially appealed to me.

Théo van Rysselberghe, The man at the tiller, 1892

Alfred Sisley, Moret Bridge, 1893

Paul Cézanne, Kitchen table (Still-life with basket)

Yes, this was an exhibition of some great and fine works—masterpieces. But I think it was oversold. It may have been the most valuable exhibition the NGA has ever shown, but I not sure that it was at all the best. The publicity repeatedly featured just three works by Van Gogh and by Gaugin. Yet the representation in the show of Van Gogh in particular was not as great as it had seemed from the promotion.

Contemporary sculpture can be very beautiful. This is Isis, by Simon Gudgeon, given to the Royal Parks Foundation by Paul Green's Halcyon Gallery. It was unveiled on the shores of the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park on 7 September 2009. Photograph: Rolant Dafis