In her studio underneath ‘Farndon’, her family home in Brisbane’s Hill End (now West End), Margaret Olley completed a series of paintings of Indigenous women and men. Susan with flowers 1962 is a major work from this group, and was awarded the 1963 Finney’s Centenary Art Prize, judged by the Queensland Art Gallery’s then director…
Continue reading » “Susan with flowers: A contemplative work by Margaret Olley”
Renowned Australian artist William Robinson offers his personal reflections on Margaret Olley’s life, art practice, and his fond memories of visiting Olley in her home is Sydney. I used to go around and see her at Paddington in Sydney. Her house was more or less just a subject for her continual group of paintings. There…
Continue reading » “Margaret Olley: Her works reflect her personality perfectly”
Margaret Olley yearned for a dog — in the early 1960s Olley’s beloved pug becomes part of her life, Olley reminisces that: ‘One day somebody arrived with a whole carload of pug dogs. They had little faces like pansies and I thought, that’s the dog for me. I arranged to get a pup from the…
Continue reading » “Meet Bonnie Sue: Margaret Olley’s beloved pug”
Christine France offers her personal reflections on Margaret Olley’s life, work and her generous spirit. Margaret was generous in her friendships, extraordinarily generous. Later on in life, when she could afford it, she was generous with gifting things to institutions. She reached out to friends, would pay their fares to places and publish books for…
Watch our time-lapse as Ben Quilty draws portraits of Margaret Olley on the wall of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). These large-scale chalk drawings are based on preparatory sketches he made for his Archibald Prize winning portrait of Olley. Quilty has cast in chalk some of the objects she gave him over the years;…
Continue reading » “Watch Ben Quilty draw with Margaret Olley’s teapot cast in chalk”
John Honeywill, offers his personal reflections on Margaret Olley’s work and how her spirit has shaped his practice. I met Margaret Olley once. In 2009 she came to her old school — Somerville House, where I taught art for many years — to be honoured for her contribution to Australian culture. Like most Australians, I…
Continue reading » “Margaret Olley: Woven into consciousness”