CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Margaret Ackland

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*News Updates*
Margaret Ackland has won the People's Choice Award for the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award 2023 for her incredible work Toile de Jouy with Poppies.

Margaret Ackland has been announced as a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award 2023.

We are delighted to announce Margaret Ackland's painting 'Self Portrait with Delft Blue and Red Carnation' has been acquired by The Bennett Art Collection, USA.

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

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

One senses that it is the artist now, not the media, that is mediating her world. Quietly she watches, absorbing and analysing – a soothsayer of sorts. Here Ackland is working beyond the 24-hour news cycle, holding on to the images that swirl around us in the ether, trying to find some more lasting personal meaning.
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Michael Fitzgerald 2018

Margaret Ackland has been a finalist the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2023) the Portia Geach Portrait Prize (2022, 2021, 2004), was the winner of the Portia Geach People's Choice Award (2021), was semi-finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (2022), and finalist in the Salon des Refusés (2020), the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2023, 2021, 2019), 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

The Great Aunt's House 2023
watercolour on paper
150cm x 100cm Arriving in gallery soon, being framed
$12,000 AUD

Interior with Old Roses 2023
watercolour on paper
140cm x 103cm Arriving in gallery soon, being framed
$11,000 AUD

Toile de Jouy with Poppies 2022
watercolour on paper, framed
140cm x 100cm (framed size 156 x 113.5 cm)
$11,000 AUD

Tilting Tulips 2023
watercolour on paper
76cm x 53cm Arriving in gallery soon, being framed
Sold
Sold

Self Portrait with Delft Blue and Red Carnation 2023
watercolour on paper
65cm x 68cm ACQUIRED BY THE BENNETT ART COLLECTION, USA
Sold
Sold

Rock Orchids with Circles 2023
watercolour on paper, framed
45cm x 45cm
$2,500 AUD

1968 2023
watercolour on paper, framed
45cm x 45cm
$2,500 AUD

Poppies with Silver Reflections 2022
watercolour on paper, framed
40cm x 40cm Arriving in gallery soon
Sold
Sold

Butter 2023
watercolour on paper
57cm x 65cm
Sold
Sold

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

Ancient History 2023
watercolour on paper
57cm x 57cm
$3,000 AUD

Dahlia with Toille 2022
watercolour on paper, unframed
57cm x 57cm
$2,500 AUD

Resting Epiphyllum 2021
watercolour on paper, framed
59cm x 38cm framed size 68.5 x 45cm
Sold
Sold

Epiphyllum and New Vase 2021
watercolour on paper, framed
79cm x 49cm framed size 89 x 57cm
$2,950 AUD

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

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

Little One 2022
watercolour on paper, framed
30cm x 30cm framed size 43 x 43cm
$1,100 AUD

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

Friday Drinks 2021
watercolour on paper, framed
30cm x 30cm framed size 43 x 43cm
$1,100 AUD

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

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

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

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

Flowers from the Balcony Garden 2021
watercolour on paper, unframed
55cm x 51cm
$1,550 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 Joy of Nasturtiums 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
22cm x 17cm
Sold
Sold

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

Peonies 2020
watercolour on paper, unframed
33cm x 33cm
Sold
Sold

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

Trees 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
21cm x 21cm
Sold
Sold

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

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

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

Red in Melbourne (Dior Show at NGV) 2017
watercolour on paper, unframed
15cm x 20cm
$550 AUD

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