Born in Melbourne in 1936, Margaret Lees studied at Prahran Technical College (1954-5),continuing under Murray Griffin at RMIT in 1957. A painter, working in watercolour and pastel, and printmaker, Lees first exhibited in a group show at Hut Gallery, Melbourne in 1974, and solo at Russell Davis Gallery in 1977 and has been active over a 30 year period with further solo and group exhibitions.
After commencing secondary teaching in 1957 and for a number of years, she began illustrating children’s books; a total of six. In 1966, when she was a the mother of four children, she illustrated the first in a series of three Agapanthus books, Naughty Agapanthus, written by Barbara Macfarlane about a girl who refuses to wear her nice warm red jumper. It was the only book to be highly commended in the Picture Book of the Year section for that year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia awards and was reissued in 1975 and 1986.
From 1987 to 1990 Lees taught drawing and printmaking at Victoria College on the Burwood campus.
In her fine art production, aside from figure studies, Lees’ visits to north-western Australia have resulted in her impressions of “a land of folded hills, gorges and rivers, creek beds, escarpments and worn down mountain ranges,” which she renders in oil pastels and linocuts. Lees developed a novel linocut printing method which softens the contours but retains saturation of hue.
- Writers:
-
James McArdle
- Date written:
- 2023
- Last updated:
- 2023
