Category / drawing

by Leonie Andrews

Nora Heysen, “Girl Painter”

Nora Heysen (1911-2003), was the first Australian woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture in 1938, for her portrait of Mme Elink Schuurman. At age 27 she was and remains, the youngest ever winner of the Archibald Prize. The Australian Women’s Weekly subsequently summarised this landmark achievement with an article entitled “Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook”.

Nora Heysen, c. 1930s

Despite underwhelming assessments like that, Heysen was more than capable of holding her own when it came to making art. The daughter of one of Australia’s most popular landscape artists, Hans Heysen, she began her formal art training at the age of 15 and by the age of 20 had her work in the collection of three State galleries. 

Sales from her first solo exhibition in 1933 funded further study in London (1934-37).

In 1944 Heysen made another breakthrough when she became the first Australian woman appointed as an Official War Artist*. In addition to her honorary rank as Captain, she was, with persistence and backing,  even paid the same rate as male war artists!

Captain Nora Heysen in Papua New Guinea in 1944. Collection of the Australian War Memorial

One of my favourite portraits of her war service is of WAAAF cook, Corporal Joan Whipp.

Heysen married in 1953, but found her practice was disrupted. She and her husband divorced in 1976. By then her portraits and still life subjects had fallen out of fashion and her work was not recognised.

Later, while researching work on some of her father’s paintings, curator Lou Klepac saw her work, and recognised it’s quality. He mounted a major exhibition of Nora’s work in 1989. In conjunction with the National Library of Australia, Klepac held another successful exhibition of her work in 2000.

Heysen at age 92, at the Art Gallery of South Australia,  standing in front of one of her father’s paintings.

Unlike so many other female artists Heysen did live to see her work regain it’s prominence. She died after a short illness in 2003.

*Both Iso Rae and Jessie Traill documented the First World War in France, but neither were given official status as Government appointed war artists.

by Leonie Andrews

Amazing Grace

Next up is Australian artist Grace Cossington-Smith, (1892-1984), whose early works showing the domestic life of Australia during the first World War brought her to prominence.

From a family photograph taken in 1915

Post WWI her bold use of colour shone in such works as The Laquer Room, 1936.

Cossington Smith is remembered for her light filled domestic interiors that became a feature of her later years.

Grace Cossington Smith, 1937 detail from a family photo, Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.

She had a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the early 1970’s, then ceased painting. She died in 1984.

Cossington Smith captured by a street photographer, c. 1930-40. Collection of the Australian War Memorial.

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by Leonie Andrews

Rosalie Gascoigne

For those of you who’ve read this blog for a while the name Rosalie Gascoigne might be familiar. I have written about her work here previously.

Gascoigne was born in New Zealand 1917 and died in Australia in 1999, (she lived in Australia from 1943). Gascoigne is, arguably, the greatest Australian landscape artist of the late 20th century. The earliest part of her time in Australia was spent at Mt Stromlo Observatory, where her husband Ben, worked as an astronomer.  It was an isolated place at the time, just outside Canberra,  the capital of Australia (now on the suburban edge of the city).

Early days at Mt Stromlo c. 1944, photgraph by Ben Gascoigne

Originally Gascoigne found expression through collecting and arranging pieces of wood and feathers as she walked around the mountain. Most memorably, at a talk of hers I went to at the National Gallery of Australia,  she showed a photo of an early work made, quite literally of rabbit droppings glued to a piece of cardboard!

Later she undertook the practice of Sogetsu Ikebana, but found it ultimately limiting. She turned to using found materials, that she often collected from country rubbish tips around Canberra, as material for her constructions.

Gascoigne with her work Clouds 1, made from a found window frame and a piece of corrugated iron. Photographer unidentified.

Major works of hers are now held by the National Gallery of Australia and other state and regional institutions.

Gascoigne in 1993, photographed by Greg Weight, who clearly referenced the earlier photo of her with Clouds 1.

I recently visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales,  where I saw Gascoigne’s installation of found domestic enamel ware. This sketch is the top section of that work (in reality the cup and long handle are suspended from the top of the work’s frame).

Detail from Gascoigne’s installation,
Enamel Ware, 1976
by Leonie Andrews

Joan Mitchell, (no not the singer).

The 3rd artist I am sketching during Inktober is American artist Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), who is associated with the abstract expressionist movement. An excellent starting place to read about Mitchell and a whole slew of women working in mid-century New York, is the book Ninth Street Women, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Joan Mitchell c. 1950

Mitchell spent a large part of her career working in France, moving there permanently from America from 1959.

Based on a photo from the Joan Mitchell estate.

In 1967 Mitchell inherited money from her mother’s estate which allowed her to purchase a property in Vértheuil, close to Monet’s house at Giverny. She lived there for the remainder of her life.

Joan Mitchell,  from a photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Mitchell worked on a large scale, painting abstract landscapes. She was, most famously to have said to art critic Irving Sandler, “I carry my landscapes around with me.”

by Leonie Andrews

Eva Hesse, sculptor?

The next artist on my list of subjects I an drawing for the Inktober 2024 challenge, is Eva Hesse (1936-1970). Definitely one of those “if only …” artists.

Hesse explored so many new materials and ideas in the very short life she had. I was introduced to her work when I studied art as a mature age student and while her sculptures continue to engage me, I have also become a massive fan of her drawings. If you want to see what she could do I highly suggest you look for a copy of the book Eva Hesse Oberlin,  which catalogues her work  held by Oberlin College. Given this book weighs just shy of 3 kgs (2.971kgs to be precise), you may have to prepare in more ways than one to tackle her body of work.

Eva Hesse, 1963,
from a photograph by Barbara Brown.

I noticed quite a different approach in the photos of Hesse, compared to those of Lee Kranser. I can’t decide if it was to do with the age she was living in, or the age of the sitter. I also felt drawn to adding some warmer tones to these drawings.

Eva Hesse c.1959,
from a photograph by Stephen Korbet