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I’ve never liked housework. I get by doing little chores when I feel like them, in between painting. Who wants to chase dust all their life? You can spend your whole lifetime cleaning the house. I like watching the patina grow. If the house looks dirty, buy another bunch of flowers, is my advice.
– Margaret Olley
Margaret Olley’s unique approach to house cleaning resulted in the eclectic, flower-filled home studio interior we have the privilege of enjoying today at the Margaret Olley Art Centre.
She filled her space with subject matter for painting including fresh, dried and synthetic flowers. Even desiccated flowers, far beyond their prime, were left in place so she could see ‘the bones’ of the flowers and continue to refer to them as subjects for painting as though they were fresh from the garden.
The next exhibition in the Margaret Olley Art Centre celebrates Olley’s love of flowers.
The Art of Flowers will feature at the Centre from Friday 9 September 2022 to 12 March 2023.
“Olley dedicated her career to exploring the endless possibilities of humble, domestic objects combined with colourful, textural and sculptural arrangements of cornflowers, delphiniums, calendulas, hydrangeas, poppies, marigolds, flannel flowers, hippeastrums and more,” Director of the Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Susi Muddiman OAM, said.
“For this exhibtiion we are bringing together some of the finest examples of her much-loved flower paintings, many of which are from private collections and are rarely seen on public display.”
The works span 5 decades, the earliest being Still life 1956 and the latest being Poppies and checked cloth 2011.
The opportunity to see these works together, adjacent to the recreation of her famous home studio, is a rich and evocoative window into her enduring career and a life dedicated to art.
In 1964 artist and art critic James Gleeson described Olley as ‘… a symphonist among flower painters…’ as she forged ahead on the success of her first ever sell-out exhibition in 1962 at Brisbane’s Johnstone Galleries, with more solo shows dominated by still life paintings.
Although Olley established herself as a landscape painter, explored figurative works, portraiture and of course interiors, it is her rich, evocative flower paintings that first come to mind when we think of her tremendous legacy in art.
Albeit a humble subject, The Art of Flowers is a splendid offering of rarely seen paintings by Australia’s most celebrated painter of still life.
The Art of Flowers will be on display in the Margaret Olley Art Centre from 9 September 2022 until 12 March 2023.
The exhibition is complemented by activities and events including free, drop-in artmaking activities for families during the summer school holidays.
For all activity and event details, visit the Gallery website gallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au
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