CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Margaret Ackland

Upcoming Exhibitions

Abundance: The Pleasure of Plenty

ARTIST COMMISSION ENQUIRY

JOIN PREVIEW LIST

LISTEN NOW Australian Women Artists Podcast #5

Whether through landscape, portraiture or small still lifes Sydney artist Margaret Ackland has been keenly observing and recording traces of human experience for more than 35 years. Drawing on her own observations of the world, sourced from newspaper clippings, online media and the comings and goings of her own daily life, Ackland's images quietly shine light on ephemeral moments both personal and political. What emerges from her delicate, often humorous and always sensitive small scale paintings encompasses a whole, worldly and fully relatable experience. As a suite they offer a glimpse into the quiet reception of the everyday, interspersed with pivotal events from world politics.

My work takes as its reference observations both large and small, profound and whimsical. I document the many small moments that fill the narrative of a life, as well as continuing to reference events that shape our understanding of this often bewildering world. These small watercolours are rendered directly onto handmade paper with no under-drawing. Each one evolves over the course of a single day, beginning in the early morning and revisited many times to apply layers of transparent pigment. Watercolour is a medium that can seem delicate and even slight, but I hope that as these works accumulate they form a more profound reading of life here and now.
Margaret Ackland, Artist Statement

Reflections of light are a regular feature of Ackland’s watercolours, and if you peer closely enough you may catch the occasional glimpse of the artist herself in mirrored surfaces. Artists have been hiding likenesses of themselves in their paintings since the fifteenth century, the most notable example being Northern Renaissance painter Jan van Eyck in The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. Although scholars continue to debate the inclusion of van Eyck’s self-portrait hiding in the enigmatic wedding portrait, there is no doubt that the curved surfaces of the silver teapot and water jug in Scenes from a Marriage contain the likeness of Ackland and her husband Vic. Instead of a stiff portrait of newlyweds posing uncomfortably in their finery, Ackland’s domestic scene, snapped with her iPhone, depicts the ease and comfort of a long marriage.
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Julie McLaren, Curator, Art Gallery of Ballarat 2024

Looking into these loose vibrant watercolours; playfully busy, full of bold colouration and graphic complexity, they present us with a dizzying level of detail. Everything is in focus, bathed in a clear light that bends and bounces off the shining, reflective surfaces of her forms. Like little visual puzzles they invite us to peer through the distortions of glass and water and to register the warping curvature of silver. Our eyes trace the folding contours of the striped fabrics used as backdrops and watch their reflections ricochet around the picture plane. There seems always more to be observed, and we are taken into the artist’s own experience of perceiving. “The prolonged looking at every stage reveals lots of detail that is unexpected or went unnoticed in early stages” says Ackland of her own engagement with these images.

Excerpt from catalogue essay by Phe Luxford 2022

ARTIST PROFILE:
Margaret Ackland has been a finalist the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (People's Choice Winner 2023, 2021, 2019), the Portia Geach Portrait Prize (2024, 2023, 2022, People's Choice Winner 2021, 2004), the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (2022), the Salon des Refusés (2020), the Gallipoli Prize (2014), and the Blake Prize (2012, 2008, 2007). Her work has been featured in Italian Vogue and on ABC TV's Compass Series. In 2012 she was included in 'Not the Way Home: 13 Artists Paint the Desert', a group expedition organised by Artist Profile Magazine and exhibited at the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney. In 2016 Ackland held a major regional solo exhibition of The Watercolour News at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Sale. In 2018 Ackland was commissioned to create a major work for the new Inter Continental Hotel in Bangladesh, the country's first major international hotel. Ackland's work is represented in a range of national collections including Artbank, the Holmes a Court Collection, the Bennett Art Collection (USA) and Deakin University.

DOWNLOAD BIO / CV (PDF)

Media Highlights

Looking North 2024
watercolour on paper, framed
70cm x 70cm
$5,000 AUD

Flannel Flowers with Liberty Print 2023
watercolour on paper
58cm x 62cm
$3,100 AUD

The Visitors 2024
watercolour on paper,
87cm x 89cm (framed size 100 x 102.5cm)
$6,500 AUD

Glass and Gloriosa 2025
watercolour on paper, unframed
80cm x 80cm
$5,000 AUD

Saikeirei 2024
watercolour on paper
80cm x 77cm (framed size 90.5 x 83.5cm)
$5,500 AUD

Cumquats and Sunshine 2024
watercolour on paper
77cm x 77cm (framed size 93 x 93cm)
$4,500 AUD

Reflection on Blue 2021
watercolour on paper, framed
70cm x 62cm framed size 84 x 75cm
$3,100 AUD

Butter II 2024
watercolour on paper
94cm x 140cm (framed size 109 x 156cm)
$11,000 AUD

Interior with Old Roses 2023
watercolour on paper
138cm x 103cm (framed size 155.5 x 120.5cm)
$11,000 AUD

The Great Aunt's House 2023
watercolour on paper
150cm x 100cm (framed size 165 x 116cm)
$12,000 AUD

Spirit Level 2024
watercolour on paper, framed
41cm x 59cm , framed size 55.5 x 73.5cm
$2,000 AUD

Reading the Room 2024
watercolour on paper
76cm x 76cm (framed size 92 x 92cm)
$4,500 AUD

Sharp Edges, Turbulent Times 2025
watercolour on paper, framed
140cm x 80cm (framed size 156cm x 95cm)
$9,500 AUD

Study in Yellow and Black 2024
watercolour on paper
80cm x 50cm (framed size 93 x 63cm)
$3,300 AUD

Hippeastrum, Glass, Lace 2023
watercolour on paper
100cm x 65cm (framed size 116 x 82cm)
Sold
Sold

Shattered 2025
watercolour on paper, unframed
60cm x 60cm
$2,000 AUD

Broken 2025
watercolour on paper, unframed
60cm x 60cm
$2,000 AUD

Stripes, Glass, Metal, Self 2021
watercolour on paper, framed
90cm x 80cm
$3,750 AUD

Phalaenopsis Orchid with Orange Glass 2022
watercolour on paper, unframed
72cm x 56cm
$3,000 AUD

Christmas II 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
32cm x 14cm
$850 AUD

Old Spoons 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
20cm x 12cm

Mind Games 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
42cm x 35cm
$1,050 AUD

Grand Final Fever 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
27cm x 14cm

Red and White 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
15cm x 20cm
$550 AUD

Prehistoric 2022
watercolour on paper, unframed
30cm x 30cm
$850 AUD

Bougainvillea 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
17cm x 14cm
$550 AUD

Agapanthus 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
30cm x 30cm
$800 AUD

Late Bloomer 2020
watercolour on paper, framed
21cm x 21cm
$750 AUD

The Scent of Jasmine 2020
watercolour on paper, framed
28cm x 28cm
$850 AUD

Flannel Flowers in Jar 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 13cm
$600 AUD

Reflections, Early Morning 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
22cm x 20cm
$600 AUD

Currawong 1 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed, In Artist's Studio
16cm x 16cm
$500 AUD

Currawong 2 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed, In Artist's Studio
18cm x 17cm
$500 AUD

Smoking - Central Station 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 21cm
$550 AUD

Pins and Needles 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
16cm x 20cm
$550 AUD

Social Distancing - A Bird Observes 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
20cm x 29cm
$600 AUD

Take the Indoor Plants for a Walk 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed, In Artist's Studio
21cm x 14cm
$550 AUD

Cleaning 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 21cm
$550 AUD

Rollout 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 21cm
$550 AUD

Slow 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 21cm
$550 AUD

Love 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
22cm x 22cm
$600 AUD