Born in Melbourne in 1936, Margaret Lees studied at RMIT and Prahran Technical College. A painter, working in watercolour and pastel, and printmaker, Lees has been active over a 30 year period with both solo and group exhibitions. She illustrated a number of children’s books. In 1967, when she was a the mother of four children, she illustrated Naughty Agapanthus about a girl who refuses to wear her nice warm red jumper, written by Barbara Macfarlane. 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.
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:
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- Date written:
- 2023
- Last updated:
- 2023
