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  • Published: 30 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781742755861
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 592
Categories:

Far From a Still Life

Margaret Olley




With new chapters taking in the last few years of Margaret Olley's life, her state funeral and the enormous legacy she has left behind.

With new chapters taking in the last few years of Margaret Olley's life, her state funeral and the enormous legacy she has left behind.

'A great painter, a great woman, a great story' Barry Humphries

Margaret Olley is arguably Australia's most loved artist. She was also one of the country's most generous benefactors to public art galleries. This intimate biography begins in the 1920s in the green, tropical wet of Tully, North Queensland, where Margaret's early childhood was spent on a cane farm and dairy. The story unfolds to tell of her life-long love affair with painting.

At boarding school at Somerville House, Brisbane, Margaret found a mentor in art teacher Caroline Barker, and she went on to blossom as an art student at East Sydney Technical College. The book includes intriguing revelations about her friendships with well-known figures such as Donald Friend, William Dobel and Russell Drysdale, and the success of her first one-person show in Sydney at the age of twenty-five.

Bohemian adventures in Europe with fellow Australian artists, including David Strachan, were to follow. She travelled - sketchbook in hand - around England, France, Italy and Spain; met Alice B. Toklas in Paris; and lived on a vineyard at Cassis in the South of France. Her story continued back in Australia where in the late 1950s in Brisbane Margaret struggled with alcoholism and was eventually forced to face up to drying out or drying up creatively.

Once she'd given up her comforting nips, her return to life and painting was joyous. This is a rich and comprehensive look at eighty-odd years of Margaret Olley, her lovers and friends, and, of course, her painting.

  • Published: 30 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781742755861
  • Imprint: Random House Australia
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 592
Categories:

About the author

Meg Stewart

Meg Stewart, filmmaker, journalist, and author, is the daughter of artist Margaret Coen and poet Douglas Stewart. Her writing includes a biography of Margaret Coen, Autobigraphy of My Mother, and the novels Modern Men Don't Shift Fridges, and The Dream Life of Harry Moon. Far From a Still Life: Margaret Olley was first published in 2005 and has now been updated to take into account the last few years and death of Australia's favourite visual artist.

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Praise for Far From a Still Life

Not only a fitting tribute to a living legend, Meg Stewart's wonderful biography is as free in spirit and full of life as her fascinating subject

The Sydney Morning Herald

An elegant book written with great poise... captures Olley as she is now and the energy which she still brings to her work

Look

Artist Margaret Olley's life has been a full one and Meg Stewart has captured this delightful and delightfully naughty living treasure beautifully in Far From a Still Life.

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