Welcome to PSoADU and an excerpt from the first newsletter: Feature Artist – Nora Heysen

In May 2020 I was appointed Ambassador for Australia and New Zealand for Portrait Society of America (PSoA). This is part of their State Ambassador program which also has an international mission.

Pandemic restrictions have limited us to bimonthly communications alternating a Zoom call with a newsletter.

I am attaching the newsletters here on my website as PDFs and invite anyone interested in joining the PSoA to do so and therefore become eligible to participate in our PSoADU network.

The article that follows article appeared in the first newsletter of the Portrait Society of America Down Under (PSoADU) network. Huge thanks to Barbara Konkolowicz for allowing me to use her B&W photos. 😊

Janelle Hatherly 2021

To familiarise his followers with Australian artists, Colley Whisson recently posted iconic Australian paintings on Instagram. As a landscape artist, Colley loves Arthur Streeton’s work best of all and understandably we were treated to lots of his masterpieces as well as many others’. I savoured the whole virtual exhibition but was painfully aware of the lack of representation of women artists. It’s not as though they didn’t exist or that ‘women can’t draw or paint as well as men’ – as Max Meldrum was quoted as saying in 1938 when Nora Heysen was announced as the first woman to win the Archibald Prize.

It’s good to see this imbalance being addressed today with positive discrimination in many art gallery exhibitions and the establishment of women-only art awards such as the Portia Geach and Ravenswood Art Prizes.

The Portrait Society of America also addresses this with its Cecilia Beaux Forum. Set up in 2005, its purpose is ‘to strengthen the role of women artists by providing programs and resources to enhance the quality of, as well as, the public's knowledge and appreciation of their work’. The Forum works through two committees – Mentorship and Literature. As a member of their Literary Committee, I’ve started researching and writing about Australian women artists. With the help of my 97-year-old research buddy, Barbara Wintringham, we’re currently having fun exploring all sorts of resource material and diving down many research rabbit-holes as we learn about the lives of Nora Heysen and Judy Cassab.

Nora Heysen, like so many other children, followed in her father’s footsteps benefitting from a lifetime of mentorship but also always constantly living in his shadow. Like her father, Nora was shy, passionate about mastering her craft and showed an aptitude for handling pigment so it conveyed 3D form and captured the essence of Australia’s atmosphere and light. Like all artists of their time, both had to leave Australia to be recognised.

Nora lived to the ripe age of 92, and died not that long ago in 2003 after a short illness. This means there are many artists and friends still around who knew her personally and remember her well. They are fonts of knowledge for researchers like Barbara and me, who can answer our questions when the existing written material fails to deliver.

I had the good fortune recently to talk about Nora with Greg Hansell, the Art School Director of the Royal Art Society NSW and a local historian. Greg recounted the enjoyable Pens and Pencils social gathering of artists at the S.H. Ervin Gallery café that he regularly attends and Nora used to attend.

This group was set up thirty years ago by Lou Klepac, art historian and book publisher, who was on the National Trust Board at the time. Lou was aware that older artists tended to lead isolated existences and saw an opportunity to bring them together. The S.H. Ervin Gallery café (housed in the historic National Trust Centre on Observatory Hill in Sydney) is closed on Mondays so he organised a monthly event, where everyone brought their own food, took part in an art quiz and shared news. Lou would pass around a sign-in book.

Nora Heysen and Marina Finlay. Photo: Barbara Konkolowicz

John Coburn, Nora Heysen, Doreen Gadsby and Alex Butler. Photo: Barbara Konkolowicz

Nora and other friends would also gather regularly at Judy Cassab’s place for life drawing. Judy’s favourite model was Marina Finlay, now an accomplished artist in her own right. Thanks to Barbara Konkolowicz, an accomplished photographer and the Gallery’s education officer at the time, we have wonderful photographic records of these Pens and Pencils gatherings as well as the other events that took place in the various artists’ homes.

Judy Cassab, Margaret Woodward and Nora Heysen at Judy’s place. Photo: Barbara Konkolowicz

Barbara has kindly agreed to share some of these historical treasures with our little network and for inclusion in the other articles. Many are as yet unpublished but visitors to the Gallery can see this first particular one of Barbara’s hanging in the SH Ervin Gallery café.

Nora and Judy with Lou Klepac. Photo: Barbara Konkolowicz

Nora loved her home, The Chalet in Hunters Hill and lived there until her death. It was one of four prefabricated 'Swiss Cottages' shipped from Hamburg, Germany to Sydney and originally erected in 1855 as part of Swiss emigre, Leonardo Etienne Bordier's planned speculative development at Hunters Hill. The house remains the only surviving cottage. Barbara recalls how Nora enjoyed a daily ritual of feeding the birds at 4pm.