Design and Art Australia Online

Commercial artist, illustrator for her family’s magazine Spotlight was born in Geraldton daughter of Rodney McPherson and Emma Una Long. She was interested in music and art from an early age. Her father died in 1919. Rae was a student at Perth Technical School in the 1920s under J. W. R. Linton who taught fashion drawing among his other subjects. She worked doing the artwork for blockmakers including for Sydney’s Women’s Mirror and also advertisements and catalogues for various shops in Perth. Her brother was a display artist for Woolworths. In 1926 she exhibited Black and White drawings including The Spirit of Jazz, The Star and The Dancer with the West Australian Society of Arts. In 1929 she exhibited illustrations The Orchid, My Lady, The Enchantress and Pleasure . She married accountant Cliff Harris in 1936 and wrote and illustrated fairy stories for her children. Books were hard to obtain during World War II and Jean Lang also did the same. As Rae Amelia Harris she became a noted miniaturist. Her teachers were Stella Lewis Marks in Perth and later Beppy Coletti in Venice. She became a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, of London in 1963 and exhibited annually with the society from 1960 until at least 1981. In 1980 she wrote a book How to Paint Miniatures which was published by University of Western Australia Press. She also became a member of the Academy of Italy (Parma).

Writers:

Erickson, Dorothy (Dr)

Date written:

2011

Last updated:

2011