Margaret Olley in her Studio (photo: R. Ian Lloyd for the National Portrait Gallery)
Image credit.
Margaret Olley died yesterday. She was 88 years old. One of Australia’s most distinguished painters and supporters of young and emerging artists, Olley was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991. She spoke openly about her efforts to overcome both alcoholism and then later in life depression also, and following success in both these battles she readily encouraged others to talk about their problems and seek help.
She had some lovely quotes about herself, too:
I’ve always loved men. Always loved men. But I’ve been one of those people who have never really wanted to be owned. Love becomes another thing. It becomes a bigger thing than a sexual drive. I must say, I think I’ve put all my energies and everything into painting. That is really my love. Painting has consumed my whole life.
I spend whatever time I can painting. I spend my life going from one place to another, following the light round. I hate painting during the winter ’cause the light seems to fail, it’s undependable. A lot of people don’t bother. They just paint by electricity. I don’t like that. I like natural light. I can’t paint anything unless I’m excited by it. Once you’ve lost the momentum, you’ve left it, it’s like a failed mayonnaise.
Girl With Pomegranates by Margaret Olley
Editor Note: this post is a lightly edited/updated version of a post originally published at Hoyden About Town.
More tributes to Olley: BBC, ABC, The Australian. The Daily Telegraph has a photogallery of her life and works.
Guest Poster blue milk is an economist who writes about motherhood from a feminist perspective, she is the author of the blog, blue milk. She has presented at conferences on motherhood, work and family, feminism, and social media; has written for magazines and newspapers, and has had her work quoted on television. She is a contributing author to the book,The 21st Century Motherhood Movement: Activist Mothers Speak Out On Why We Need To Change the World And How To Do It. She is also the mother of two children. She might sound like she has it together, but she so very much doesn’t. You can follow her on twitter @bluemilk.
A fine Australian Experessionist. RIP.
I always perked up when Olley popped up on the telly or radio – she was invariably witty, charming and incisive. All that and a renowned painter too!
She will be hugely missed.
For somebody whose appreciation of visual art is extremely limited – and whose tastes in subject matter veer far away from still lifes – I’m curious to get a sense of what Olle’s work meant to others.
What about her art – as distinct from her clearly generous patronage of the arts – affected you?
Robert, one of the things – not the only thing – about Olley’s work was that it was such a huge source of satisfaction to her and it is such a pleasure to see someone at a great age still madly beavering away at work which they do to such a high standard and which engages them on every level. It’s the possibility of a really, really rich life that makes me happy when I look at people like this.
Cf. Amy Winehouse, another woman who I loved and admired – if only she had been able to grow and mature and end up as a woman like this, still enjoying her life and her art, sharp and wise to the end. (And judging by the cigarette references, Olley wasn’t any clean-living fanatic, either!)
She certainly enjoyed a drink and a smoke until the end. She must have had a great constitution to live til 88.
Rob, she wasn’t one of my favourite painters. But, what I like is the sense of joy and the abundance of emotion that comes through her canvasses, especially in her use of colour.
Margaret Olly was a young bohemian in Sydney who kept it up until the end. What a wonderful life!
“I’ve always loved men. Always loved men. But I’ve been one of those people who have never really wanted to be owned.”
Onya Olly.
Vale Margaret: quelle artiste! quelle femme!!
One of the few Aussies who has left this place for the better because she was here.
Vale Margaret,you will be sadly missed.
Margaret Olley reminisces about her country childhood
A replay of a charming interview with Alicia Brown on Bush Telegraph today.