Overview
In 1980, shortly after returning to art classes at the John Ogburn Studio, I was overjoyed to find a studio space in an old building awaiting demolition at Sydney’s Circular Quay. I painted here for nine years. It was a short, wonderfully picturesque walk to the Harrington Street bond store in The Rocks, to the John Ogburn Studio and the Harrington Street Artists’ Co-operative Gallery.
Regular group and special theme exhibitions at the Gallery provided all students with a unique opportunity to exhibit and contribute to the running of exhibitions from the beginning of one’s drawing and painting life.
With my late husband Phil I enjoyed weekends at a vineyard in the Hunter Valley.
In Sydney at least three big marches were held in the mid-1980s to protest against the ugliness and questionable economics of the proposed Monorail. Then 1988 saw celebrations for 200 years of European settlement in Australia and to my enormous joy and relief the renovated and vastly expanded State Library opened to the public.
To view the gallery in sequence please use the play button located at the top of the image or alternatively use the forward and back button to view at your desired pace.
In the right foreground of this drawing are the beautiful old buildings of Harrington Street, including the bond store which housed the Harrington Street Gallery and the John Ogburn Studio in the 1980s. The redevelopment of this part of the Rocks later saw a steep rise in rents, forcing not-for-profit art communities like ours out of the area. The beautiful new Sydney Opera House opened in 1973. (Charcoal on paper 1980)
This depicts my favourite area in the John Ogburn Studio in Harrington Street. I’ve always loved the rich look of what I fondly think of as the paraphernalia of a studio, office or library (Oil on paper 1980)
The exciting view over the Cahill Expressway from my first studio in 27 Reiby Place, Circular Quay on the 3rd floor. What a brilliant location.
I had first-hand experience of ever-increasing traffic and construction chaos in Sydney, growing increasing stronger as the Bicentenary of European settlement in Australia approached (Oil on paper 1982)
I’ve always been a light sleeper and a heavy worrier (Pastel on paper 1982)
In the 80s my elder brother Tony became a shareholder in Oakdale Vineyard in the Hunter Valley. Phil and I used to love going there. One time I spent several days painting in a dilapidated old storage shed on the property. This painting clearly revealed to a grateful manager where he’d find his long-lost archimedes drill (Oil on paper 1987)
My late husband was a chain smoker and his meditative expression when dragging on his roll-your-own was something to behold. (Oil on paper 1987)
In this drawing I wanted to capture the dejected gesture of a model’s 5-minute pose, made on a kitchen stool in John’s Studio. Later I replaced the kitchen stool with a bathroom toilet as nude women are very seldom seated on kitchen stools… (Oil on paper 1982)
When the John Ogburn Studio moved to the Sydney suburb of Glebe a sleek black cat named Boris quickly introduced himself. Boris and the models’ dais were made for each other. (Oil on paper 1986)
I think audio tours were first introduced in the Art Gallery of NSW for this first exhibition of ancient Chinese artworks, sent to Australia by the Chinese Government in 1982. It’s so much easier to listen to others’ opinions of paintings than to try and see what makes them special. (Oil on paper 1982)
Take a close look and you will see that this is no ordinary exhibition opening. Something extraordinary is happening. For the transfixed, gawping gesture of the only person actually looking at a painting I am indebted to a wonderful picture by Hieronymus Bosch called “The Conjurer”. (Oil on paper 1980)
Cultivated grapevines greet native eucalypts at the Oakdale vineyard in the Hunter. I painted this after a fun weekend picking grapes. (Oil on paper 1982)
There was a creek near the guests’ cottage at the vineyard. I recall doing this painting on a soggy open verandah on a wet day loud with the hullabaloo of frogs. (Oil on paper 1985)
In the mid-80s there was a strong community campaign against the construction of an ugly, costly monorail in Sydney’s CBD. Laurie Brereton, State Minister for Public Works ,was known to all through countless signs advertising new building projects all over the city. It’s taken until 2012 for a Government announcement that it is a financial flop and its days are now (thankfully) numbered. (Oil on paper 1986)
A coach full of fellow-librarians and other tourists passes through the outskirts of Katherine in the Northern Territory. In the mid-80s the living conditions in Katherine and other remote aboriginal communities had to be seen to be believed… Tragically, nearly 30 years later, it’s still much the same. (Oil on paper 1986)
On Australia Day in January 1988 the Bicentenary of European settlement was celebrated by the arrival of tall ships from all over the world. At vantage points on Sydney Harbour this is what met the visitors’ eyes. (Oil on paper 1988)
