Painter Romola Clifton was the daughter of architect Marshall Clifton and his wife Nancy. She was educated at St Hilda’s and the Slade School in London 1953-55. Clifton undertook a year at University of Western Australia becoming a medical artist. She became a full-time artist following her first solo exhibition at twenty-one at the Skinner Galleries in 1959.
Clifton held an exhibition each year spending time travelling overseas and some time living in Sydney when she married the artist Ross Morrow. Of her 1960 solo exhibition at the Skinner Galleries the critic Charles Hamilton wrote, “Deft handling of watercolour to produce beautiful textures and atmospheric effects, reinforced by a romantic and poetic feeling for the essence of landscape. Figures in action, and old buildings, lift this section to a high level. The freedom of ink and gouache is shown in spirited portrait-sketches and action studies pointing to further progress.”
Of her 1983 exhibition when she had returned to live in Perth, Murray Mason wrote, “... extensive exhibition … is warm and mellow and maintains an honesty of approach in the face of demands of contemporary expressions.” The Morrow’s divorced and she married writer, arts administrator, and publisher Ian Templeman and moved to Canberra with him when he took up a position in the National Library of Australia. Various of her works were published in editions.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
