Mary M Abbott was born in Quirindi in rural NSW in 1916. She came to Sydney to study art, first at the Sydney Commercial School and later at the Julian Ashton Art School. In the 1950s she also taught at the Julian Ashton Art School.
Although she established her reputation primarily as a portrait painter, and was a regular exhibitor in the Archibald Prize in the 1950s, she was also adept as a commercial illustrator and also designed jewellery and fashion.
In 1958 she moved to Bathurst where she became active in the Bathurst Society of Music and Arts.
As with many women artists of her generation her work was little recognised in her lifetime, although she was awarded the watercolour and other media prizes in the 1960 and 1972 Bathurst Regional Gallery art prize.
In 1977 her work was included in Project 21: Women’s images of women at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In the introduction to her retrospective exhibition at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 1985 she wrote:
“most certainly an artist requires inspiration and emotion, but basic qualities of composition, drawing and painting, should be the students first consideration, later developing versatility and flexibility.”
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2012
- Last updated:
- 2018
