Margaret Preston's Monotypes

27 Plates in Colour

Margaret Preston

• Publisher: ETT Imprint
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781925706093
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

MARGARET PRESTON is Australia's most original painter. Essentially a pioneer, she strikes out new paths, and her fervour for experiment has led her into diverse forms of art. As she has mastered each new method she discards it and moves on to something fresh. Her latest conquest is the Monotype, and this book reveals her achievement in this field. As a practical craftsman, she found intense pleasure in working out a rare method of making Monotypes that can only be compared with that used by William Blake - whose secret died with him. This method gives a special quality to the work, a depth and richness that is unusual in this medium. Superb craftsmanship, imagination and a daring yet subtle use of colour have gone to the making of these Monotypes. (from Introduction by Gwen Morton Spencer)

Plate 1 HAWKESBURY RANGES, N.S.W.

A scene on a winter’s day, the flat scrubby primordial-shaped hills.
The cold water and stark growth in the foreground, helped by the technique of the painting, make an Australian landscape.

In the possession of the National Art Gallery of Queensland.

THIS BOOK WAS SET UP, PRINTED AND BOUND IN AUSTRALIA
BY WAITE & BULL, 486 ELIZABETH ST. SYDNEY. THE GEORGIAN
PAPER WAS SUPPLIED BY B. J. BALL. ENGRAVINGS ARE BY
HARTLAND & HYDE OF SYDNEY.

 

This edition published by ETT Imprint, Exile Bay 2017

ETT IMPRINT
PO Box R1906
Royal Exchange NSW 1225
Australia

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

First published by Sydney Ure Smith 1949

This edition copyright © ETT Imprint, 2017
ISBN 978-1-925706-09-3 (ebook)

We are grateful to the Trustee of the Estate of the Late Margaret Preston, the Permanent Trustee Company Limited, for permission to reproduce the images and writings of Margaret Preston in all editions by or about Margaret Preston.

 

 

 

URE SMITH PTY. LIMITED, 166 PHILLIP STREET, SYDNEY

London Representatives: Wadley and Ginn, Dominion House, Bartholomew Close, London, E.C

South Africa: Peter Huston Pty. Ltd., Tudor House, 43 Church Street, Capetown

New Zealand: John Hogan, Democracy Publishing Co. Ltd., Wellington

Contents and List of Plates

INTRODUCTION By Gwen Morton Spencer

MY MONOTYPES By Margaret Preston

1. HAWKESBURY RIVER, N.S.W.

2. KANGAROOS

3. RED LAMBERTIA.

4. BIMBOWRIE LANDSCAPE.

5. ABORIGINAL STILL-LIFE.

6. PACIFIC OCEAN FROM PACIFIC HIGHWAY

7. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BANKSIA

8. BUSH TRACK

9. MIDDLE HARBOUR

10. SCRUB COUNTRY

11. FISH.

12. A BlLLABONG

13. MIXED FLOWERS

14. BANANAS: ABORIGINAL DESIGN

15. PATONGA

16. NATIVE AUSTRALIAN FLOWERS

17. NATIVE FLOWERS OF N.S.W.

18. AUSTRALIAN FLOWERS

19. GIANT LILY (GYMEA)

20. EVERLASTING FLOWERS.

21. INLAND, N.T.

22. QUALLUP BELLS

23. RUNG TIMBER

24. WARATAH AND MIXED FLOWERS

25. DROUGHT, MIRAGE COUNTRY

26. BANKSIA TREE

27. SIMPSON'S GAP

THE END PAPERS ARE REPRODUCED FROM A MONOTYPE DESIGNED BY THE ARTIST

INTRODUCTION

By GWEN MORTON SPENCER

MARGARET PRESTON is Australia’s most original painter. Essentially a pioneer, she strikes out new paths, and her fervour for experiment has led her into diverse forms of art. As she has mastered each new method she discards it and moves on to something fresh. Her latest conquest is the Monotype, and this book reveals her achievement in this field. As a practical craftsman, she found intense pleasure in working out a rare method of making Monotypes that can only be compared with that used by William Blake – whose secret died with him. This method gives a special quality to the work, a depth and richness that is unusual in this medium. Superb craftsmanship, imagination and a daring yet subtle use of colour have gone to the making of these Monotypes.

Critics who have seen the originals have instantly recognised her mastery of this method, but having painted a set of some seventy of them, Margaret Preston refuses to do any more. “I’ve done Monotypes,” she declares; “I’ll do something else.” And one knows she means it. It was the same with her silk screen work. After doing an exciting set of silk screen studies she stopped dead just as the critics were rhapsodising over her verve and skill. “I’ve done silk screen,” she said, and gave away her equipment to a young artist who wanted to take up this work for a living. Similarly with wood cuts and masonite cuts; she produced a vivid series of each, both in colour and black-and-white – then did no more of them.

A representative exhibition of Margaret Preston’s work would show a wide diversity. First would come her figure studies, flower pieces and still-lifes, her coloured wood cuts, all carried out with that vigour that is characteristic of all she does. Then...

Table of contents

• Plate 1
• Contents and List of Plates
• INTRODUCTION
• Plate 2
• MY MONOTYPES
• Plate 3
• Plate 4
• Plate 5
• Plate 6
• Plate 7
• Plate 8
• Plate 9
• Plate 10
• Plate 11
• Plate 12
• Plate 13
• Plate 14
• Plate 15
• Plate 16
• Plate 17
• Plate 18
• Plate 19
• Plate 20
• Plate 21
• Plate 22
• Plate 23
• Plate 24
• Plate 25
• Plate 26
• Plate 27
• COMPLETE LIST OF MONOTYPES