Watercolorist who was born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire, England. After coming to Australia in 1911, she studied art while a student at Claremont Teacher Training College and took instruction from J. W. R. Linton, A. B. Webb and John McLeod who were the instructors at the University’s short-lived fine art classes c1929-30.
She became an art teacher at Perth Modern School. After her marriage to John Hetherington in the 1940s, she taught at Presbyterian Ladies College. Although not a member, she exhibited with the Perth Society of Artists in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1944 exhibition her work was described as one of the highlights, “a dashing study of poppies and romantic landscapes”. A 1945 critic mentioned “M. Tarling’s strong colourful treatment of unusual subjects.” In 1950 her exhibit was a watercolour, Tranquil River, Denmark, and in 1953 she exhibited Tranquility.
Ted Snell has written of her work, “The crisp definition of forms and the careful observation of local colour are characteristic of the numerous pictures she painted up until the 1950s.”
In the 1956 Festival of Perth exhibition she exhibited six oils and watercolours. She was given a review exhibition at the Undercroft Gallery at University of Western Australia in 1986.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
