Deep water, Bobbin Head c.1942 is a work that held special meaning for modernist Grace Cossington Smith, the artist captures the landscape at Bobbin Head, near her North Sydney home, in broad brushstrokes and iridescent colour. Grace Cossington Smith (1892–1984) became one of Australia’s most celebrated modernists, renowned for her iconic cityscapes and luminous interiors,…
Thea Proctor’s vibrant hand-coloured woodcut Summer, inspired by the tradition of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, brings me joy because it reminds me of life’s simple pleasures (ikigai). In 1921, having spent much of the past two decades in London, Thea Proctor returned to Australia and settled in Sydney where she became an influential artist and a…
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Australian artist Margaret Preston (1875-1963) is best known for the striking paintings and woodcut prints that she produced from the 1920s until the 1950s. Bridge from North Shore c.1932 (illustrated) is a bold and decorative work and a fine example of the artist’s style during this period. Like the floral still-lifes the artist produced at…
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Margaret Preston (1875-1963) returned to Australia from Europe in 1919 determined to develop a modern and distinctly national art. Indigenous art was integral to her campaign and, after 1932, when she moved to Berowra in the Hawkesbury Basin near Sydney and encountered local rock art, she embraced its restricted palette and geometric forms. Her appreciation…
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NSW and West Australian banksia 1929 is one of a number of paintings by Australian artist Margaret Preston (1875-1963) in which she used the floral still life to bring attention to the natural world and landscape as a way of expressing place and the notion of ‘home’. The distinctive organic forms of the banksia and…
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Recognised and admired for her vibrant and distinctive art, Margaret Preston (1875–1963) possessed an equally colourful personality, and was described by one associate as ‘the natural enemy of the dull’. After committing to a career as an artist from an early age, Preston completed her academic training in Melbourne and Adelaide before spending two lengthy…
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