Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I rise to speak on the life of Margaret Olley. One of the great tragedies of life is that you come into this place and you get to speak on the lives of people who you never get to meet. Margaret Olley has been one of my favourite artists for an awfully long time. Born in Lismore in 1923, she was educated at Somerville House in Brisbane. I am sure she had nothing to do with those terrible green uniforms they are walking around in now! During her lifetime she was the subject of over 90 exhibitions, a great favourite of Philip Bacon, who is a fantastic art dealer in Brisbane and throughout Australia. She wanted to paint and she wanted to focus her life on it, and she did. She sat in her house and she painted what she saw.

A thing I love about Margaret Olley is that she said the painter was never finished. Philip Bacon would always tell the story that, if you put a painting down in front of her and it had been hung in a gallery for 20 years, he would turn his back and then turn around and she would be just brushing up and changing something. She was a true artist, where something was always ready to be done—something more could be added.

I think the other thing I love about her is that she must have been tremendous company. She was a successful painter and subject. Two portraits of her went on to win the Archibald Prize. Of course, we all know the one by William Dobell in 1948, and this year was the one by Ben Quilty. Lots of prominent Australians painted her, and while she must have been an incredibly interesting subject I think she must have been even better company. To sit there and watch her paint, to sit there and watch her potter around the house with a packet of smokes always handy—it must have been lovely just to be around. I think everyone needs an aunt or a grandmother like Margaret Olley.

She was named a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991 and was made a Companion of the Order in 2006. She was very generous with her time, very generous with her art and generous to all the people who really counted. She did not ever count herself as a 'big head'—in Townsville we call them 'big heads'. She never got above where she was. She was just a painter, just an artist; that is all she wanted to do and she never wanted to be anything more.

The big thing I would like to say is that all the words that will be spoken here today and spoken about Margaret Olley throughout Australia will not mount up to five precious minutes in front of a Margaret Olley oil. To stand in front of something like that and see the depth and the talent and be drawn in is truly something spectacular. Vale Margaret Olley. Thank you for what you have done for this country. Thank you for what you have done for my life. May you rest in peace.

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