margaret olley

Heather Moore has posted a picture of my favourite Morandi painting on her Skinny Laminx blog today, following up on her post about this painter yesterday (I sent her the link after reading her wonderful post). Coincidentally the Morandi painting, held in our local Art Gallery of NSW, is one of many bought with a bequest from the wonderful Margaret Olley, herself one of our finest Australian painters, and someone who I've been meaning to post about for ages.
Now in her eighties, Margaret is best known for her still lives. A recent exhibition though, which I visited in May, featured her landscapes in watercolour, pen and ink, done over many years and many from travels around the world.


I've had the pleasure of meeting Margaret and she is an inspiration. She is wonderfully talented, clever and funny. Her sense of colour, shape and composition are beautiful and her long career is an inspiration to all artists.


Disappointingly I can't find a good copy of this self portrait online. It is one of my favourite paintings of hers and I love how contemporary it feels despite being painted in 1948.

p.s. The lovely Mary Beth from Supafine who writes for True Up emailled me a while ago about using my one of my stash photos in her Show us your Stash column. You can see it today on True Up, that wonderful fabric resource for all us addicts! If you haven't read it, go and have a look.