sketching

A beautiful story about Vida Lahey. By Susan Prior The highly acclaimed Australian artist, Frances Vida Lahey, born in 1882 (d. 1968), was the eldest child of David Lahey and Jane Jemima Walmsley, and one of 12 children, eight boys, and four girls. All four Lahey girls were encouraged by their parents to ‘look to the future’. Vida, who had spent some time in Melbourne at the National Gallery School under the tutelage of, among others Frederick McCubbin, became an artist earning her own income from her paintings and from teaching. In 1912, while the family was living at Greylands in Indooroopilly, she painted her classic Monday Morning, a laundry scene at the house. This painting truly launched her career, and it is now part of the Queensland Art Gallery’s permanent collection, having been donated by Brisbane poet Mme Emily Coungeau. Following this success she worked hard to encourage the arts in Queensland, sitting on a variety of art committees and organising balls, tableaux, and other fund-raising events. But then World War I intervened, and four of Vida’s brothers enlisted. As the oldest sibling, she had assumed the mantle of taking care of her younger siblings, and, in fact, there were 15 Lahey cousins involved in the war, so for Vida it probably seemed a logical and practical course to establish a base in England for when her boys were on leave or were sick so she could look after them. She set sail in 1916 aboard The Magnolia and stayed away for nearly five years. In England she was quickly swept up in the war effort doing volunteer work; it is believed that while she was there she was supported financially by the extended Lahey family. After the war Vida remained in Europe, studying art and traveling, returning to Australia to resume her career in 1921. Vida painted, judged, won awards and received much critical acclaim over her lifetime. She is one of Queensland’s best-loved artists. In 2010–2011, the Queensland Art Gallery held an exhibition of her work. The website page for the exhibition says this: Although floral still lifes were a popular genre throughout Australia at the time, Lahey's handling of brilliant colour was considered exceptional and her paintings were exhibited in southern states from the 1920s to wide acclaim. She continued to produce these delightful floral studies to the end of her career. Source: www.secretbrisbane.com.au/home/vida-lahey

Brilliant picture

nice shot

Paula Rosenstengel had every advantage in becoming an artist. Born in Brisbane on 14 September 1920, Paula was the child of acclaimed Queensland furniture designer Edward (Ed) Rosenstengel and his wife Evelyn Smith. Paula showed a natural inclination towards the arts from an early age and Edward supported her artistic endeavors, his own success in the industry perhaps providing a model for how art could translate into a sustainable profession. But like many other Queensland artists whose vocations suffered from lack of education, professional networks, and exhibition opportunities, Paula felt isolated in a city later described as an ‘art backwater’ (Langer 1958). While other artists migrated south to Sydney or Melbourne or journeyed further afield to the Continent, a 17-year old Paula found an innovative solution to Brisbane’s paucity of art educators: private art tuition by post. Her correspondence with the English watercolorist Claude Muncaster provides a unique insight into the mind of a young woman artist struggling with self-doubt and isolation. These letters, now housed in the State Library of Queensland, reveal a young woman with a passion for art, a desire for recognition, and a yearning for experiences and education outside of her grasp. Source: adderton.org.au/stories/dear-miss-rosenstengel/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Christy

awesomely cute!