Unlocking Margaret’s House: Still Life Challenge | Poppies Challenge

Our sixth Still Life Challenge is inspired by Margaret Olley’s painting 'Poppies and peeled orange' 2011.

Margaret Olley loved flowers and her home was filled with fresh, dried and synthetic flowers - ready to be subject matter for painting. Poppies were among her favourites and even today, in the re-creation of her home studio, there are bunches of synthetic poppies in vases just as she had displayed them.

'Poppies and peeled orange' 2011 was painted in the final year of Olley’s life when she was 88 years of age and no longer able to move freely from room to room to paint as she once did. Instead her niece would visit and help her set up for a session of painting in a favourite chair, adjacent to her dining table in the Hat Factory. Olley had always painted from life, but working predominantly from this one location during her final year meant that she had to paint more from memory. It’s most likely that 'Poppies and peeled orange' is an example of this.

Elements of the composition are entirely suggestive of her green kitchen being the setting for this still life arrangement and yet proportions and perspectives differ from reality. The objects are reminiscent of actual objects in her collection but they vary in ways, such as colour or proportion. In this final year, there is also a noticeable change to her brushstrokes. Thin layers of paint are applied with swift, energetic brushstrokes and forms have soft, indistinct edges.

In 2019 contemporary, Sydney-based artist Nicholas Harding spent time drawing in the re-creation of Olley’s home studio. On return to his own studio, Harding worked from his drawings to paint 'The poppy rider' - capturing the wondrous, theatrical potential of the space.

The re-creation of Olley’s home studio is familiar to Harding because he spent time in her actual Sydney home studio. Harding and Olley first met in 1994. By this time, even though he had only presented two exhibitions of his own, Olley was already an admirer of his work and she became both friend and mentor to him. Some years later Olley agreed to a portrait sitting with Harding, which took place in her home studio. 'Margaret Olley' 1998, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize of that year.

Harding’s 'The poppy rider' and Olley’s 'Poppies and peeled orange' are on display in a new exhibition in the Margaret Olley Art Centre called 'Margaret’s House' until 2 May 2021. We hope you enjoy making new work in response to this still life arrangement inspired by Olley’s 'Poppies and peeled orange' 2011.

We look forward to seeing your responses in art. Share them with us via #unlockingmargaretshouse

Image Credits

Margaret Olley (1923–2011) 'Poppies and peeled orange' 2011, oil on board, 61 x 76 cm. Private collection, courtesy Philip Bacon Galleries. © Margaret Olley Art Trust

Nicholas Harding, 'The poppy rider' 2020, oil on linen, 152 x 168 cm. Collection of the artist, courtesy Philip Bacon Galleries. © The artist

Nicholas Harding, 'Margaret Olley' 1998, oil on linen, 122 x 101 cm. Tweed Regional Gallery collection. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by Peter Weiss AO, 2020. © The artist

All photographs of Margaret Olley, 2006 by Chris Shain © The artist

Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs: Tweed Regional Gallery collection