Margaret
Preston
1875-1963
• Margaret Preston (1875 - 1963) was a well-known
Australian artist who was born in Port Adelaide.
• Preston’s talents were observed throughout her
training, winning her various drawing awards
including the prestigious Still life Scholarship in 1897.
In 1898 she furthered her studies at Adelaide's
School of Design, under Hans Heysen and other
artists.
• She was very influential during the 1920s to 1940s
for her modernist works as a painter and printmaker
and for introducing Aboriginal motifs into
contemporary art.
Waratah Print 1925
Anemones
Double hibiscus oil painting1929
Fuchsias print 1928
Lorikeets, relief wood cut 1925
Clockwise from top: Banksia, 1953; Pink Gum Blossoms, 1929;
and Aboriginal Design with Sturt's Pea, 1943.
Margaret Preston's Aboriginal design
with Sturt's pea, 1943.
Native flowers, Aboriginal design, 1943
woodcut, printed in colour, from one masonite block
Margaret Preston, Still life: fruit (Amhem Land motif), 1941
oil on canvas
From the 1920s onward, Margaret Preston became
an Australian arts icon through her use of the linocut
and woodblock technique. The aesthetic styles of the
Japanese, Chinese and primitive art forms of the
Aboriginal communities in Australia inspired her work.
Preston created her compositions with large, flat
planes of colour and a minimal palette.
In Still life: fruit (Amhem Land motif), Preston looked
to the ochre and black/white Tiwi artist palette and the
dot/dash mark making technique of the native
Aborigines. The fruits and nuts were depicted as
simplified forms, outlined with a thick application of
white and black paint.
Margaret Preston
aged 18
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Preston
http://www.margaretpreston.info/