One of the artists whose work I most admire, is Jane Sutherland.

Jane Sutherland 1853-1928 was an artist and art teacher.

At age seventeen, her father George Sutherland, who was a drawing instructor and artist exhibiting with the Victorian Academy of Arts, encouraged her to enroll in the National Gallery Schools. She studied  under Thomas Clark, 1871-1875, Oswald Rose Campbell, 1877-1881. Eugene von Guerard in 1877, and  George Frederick Folingsby, 1882-1885.

She is an artist of the same era as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin and painted with them at the Box Hill artist Camp. See:- her work 'Obstruction, Box Hill' in 1887.

She exhibited in 1878 with the Victorian Academy of Arts and  the Australian Artists' Association. She later exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society.. She also exhibited works in the federal exhibitions in 1899, 1903 and 1906 at the South Australian Society of Arts, and along with Clara Southern, and May Vale, exhibited in the First Exhibition of Australian Women's Work held in the Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne, 1907.

Jane Sutherland, Clara Southern, May Vale and Jane Price also exhibited together in a 'Private Exhibition of Pictures' held in November 1905 in Frederick McCubbin's home, in Shipley Street, South Yarra.   Fredrick McCubbin was ‘gentleman’ artist of whom I have a great deal of respect.  Many of the male artists. One in particular, went out of their way to strive to prevent private art galleries hanging the work of the great woman artist’s of the day and this makes Fredrick McCubbin’s efforts to strive to put right, the professional disadvantage these women artists struggled under, even more noticeable as he himself was ridiculed by his male counterparts for both this and his own devotion to his family.

Jane Sutherland and her close friend, Clara Southern, were pioneers of the plein-air movement, and  they sought to advance the professional standing of women artists. Jane Southerland was considered the leading woman artist of the Heidelberg School.

Jane Sutherland Biography

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Jane Sutherland - Obstruction, 1887
Jane Sutherland - Girl in a Paddock, c. 1890
Jane Sutherland - The Mushroom Gatherers, c. 1895
The Creek, 1895

Jane Sutherland - Daydream, c. 1895
Field Naturalists, 1896.
Emanuel Phillips Fox - A Love Story, c. 1903
Jane Sutherland - Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl, c. 1905

Heidelberg School Background

Around 1904, Jane Sutherland suffered a mild stroke, after this, she stopped painting large on location landscapes and adapted to painting small  oils and pastels, of her garden local surroundings and portraits.

It was during this time she painted the beautiful 'Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl', c.1905. She continued painting, exhibiting and teaching art, with the assistance of a family member, up 1911.  

The people and horses in outback Australia, and the cattle country, provide a wealth of material for the artist to paint. In this work I have used an image from the Katherine Camp-draft, in a scene I was painting of central Queensland. Note the red earth. I used a technique explained to me by a relative of the great Sir Hans Heysen, to create the richness of the red gold earth. It is a technique I teach my students, one which is not immediately obvious. it is these 'tricks of the trade, passed by one master to the next, that has assisted me throughout my own career as an artist. It isn't 'beginner information though' :-), first lessons first.
The image pictured here is of a gift card, made from this large work. The original is longer than this image, it does not have the writting on it. I am not sure of the size, I thiink it may be 15" x 30". it is a favorite of mine and I have it hanging on show, in my studio room.

One of the most useful tools I ever learned was to apply the rules of Time Management.

I first read ‘How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life’ by Alan Laken when I was 32. I still have that battered paperback copy, though its contents are in my head.  It has helped me achieve and reset higher, achieve and reset, at least five lifetime goals.

I have also attended a range of seminars in time management, bought audio tapes, and now I research on the internet when I want a refresher course.

Applying the principles I learned, assisted me in my creative profession and I continued studying this subject and teaching it and see it as a helpful life tool where the questions may not change but our answers like our goals are constantly evolving as we grow.

I reach stages where there is not enough time to complete what I want to be doing, so I ask, the most useful question I ever learned to ask myself:

‘What is the best use of my time ~ NOW’

 

"Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use" Thomas John Watson (1874-1956), founder of IBM

By asking yourself Laken's question "What is the best use of my time right now?" and doing the task that best fills your time at that particular moment you will increase your overall efficiency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done



 

Miss Collins, 1924 winner of the Archibald Prize by William McInnes.
I was privileged to be able to view the home gallery of the former great seven times Archibald prize winning artist, as a child and to be inspired by his genius.

Violet McInnes, was my inspiration.

The gardens of the McInnes home in Ivanhoe, Victoria, were filled with camellia in flower when I visited and the home contained magnificent oil paintings of these same camellias, painted by Violet McInnes. 

I remember seeing a dew drop on a petal that she had painted and working for years, as a child,  trying to perfect the painting  of a dew drop. 
I adored Violet McInnes paintings, (see below) and I know my love for having 'an artist's flower garden' and for painting, grew more from my admiration as a child of Violet McInnes's work, and a desire to create beauty in what was a troubled childhood.

Looking at these pictures, now, still makes me want to block out life and set the easel up in front of bouquet of casually arranged, garden flowers.

The Ivanhoe, Victoria, home of the my Aunt Kath McInnes and Ian McInnes, was filled with the magnificent flower paintings by Violet McInnes, who lived in the 'granny flat', within the grounds of the home.  I never met her, I would have loved to have been able to tell her, how much I was in awe of her skill, both then and now.  Her work inspired me more than the work of any other artist. I was able to view it at first hand, on numerous occasions at an age when I first decided I too, would be an artist.