Kenneth Macqueen was born on 8 April 1897 at Ballarat, Victoria, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman. He moved to Brisbane with his family in 1898, and to Sydney in 1909. From 1914 to 1916 he worked as a clerk at the Colonial Sugar Refinery. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1916, and served on the Western Front.
In London after the war Macqueen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art under Henry Tonks and at the Westminster School of Art under Bernard Meninsky. After returning to Australia in 1919 he worked on sheep stations in New South Wales. In 1922 he purchased a property at Mount Emlyn, near Millmerran, in south-eastern Queensland, where he divided his time between watercolour painting and farming. His daily life of farming brought him into a close personal relationship with nature.
Macqueen was one of the first Australian watercolourists to adopt a formalist approach in which shape and colour play a dominant role. He served as a Trustee of the Queensland Art Gallery in 1959-1960. Kenneth Macqueen died of a heart attack on 21 June 1960 at Millmerran, Queensland.
- Writers:
- Gray, Dr AnneNote: Head of Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
- Date written:
- 2006
- Last updated:
- 2011
