Margaret Olley
Still life 1986
Margaret Olley paints still lifes almost exclusively. Although this genre of painting has remained out of fashion in the art world for long periods of time, Olley is renowned for pursuing her own vision irrespective of current trends and fashions.
Olley is widely traveled and the influences of great European masters from Vermeer to Bonnard are evident in her work. However, the intense colour of her palette is drawn from sub-tropical Australia. In Still life 1986 the flowers and fruit seem to glow against the background and are infused with energy. This celebratory painting reveals Olley's mastery of colour and pictorial composition and was awarded the Aberdare Art Prize for still life at the Ipswich Regional Art Gallery in 1986.
Born in Lismore in 1923, Olley has enjoyed an illustrious career and is widely regarded today as one of Australia's most respected and prolific painters. She has won numerous awards and was recently given a major retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1997).
