Margaret Preston 1875-1963

The year 2025 sees the 150th anniversary of the birth of Margaret Preston (née Margaret Rose McPherson), one of Australia’s most important painter-printmakers, and a pioneer in developing modern art in this country.

Born in Port Adelaide, South Australia, on 29 April 1875, Margaret studied in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Munich and Paris. Her exposure to the European avant-garde is evident in her bold, geometric designs. Over her long and productive career she continued to travel widely: in Australia, the Pacific, Asia and Africa, incorporating different influences into her work.

An eloquent advocate for the development of a distinctly Australian artistic vision and subject matter, Preston depicted still-lives, birds and animals, people, landscapes and cityscapes, but is best known for her paintings and prints of local landscapes and flora.

The three stamps in this issue feature hand-coloured woodcuts combining various native Australian and exotic flowers, dating from the 1920s when the artist was in her fifties. These relief prints were made by carving into the plank side of a piece of wood, cutting away the background areas to leave only the final image raised. Black ink was then rolled onto this raised surface and a print made onto paper. Later, each print was individually coloured by hand, using gouache (opaque water-based paint). So, although these prints were usually produced in a small numbered edition, each final impression is unique.

The back of the stamp pack features a painted self-portrait, completed in 1930 when the artist was fifty-five years of age, commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Margaret Preston died in Sydney on 28 May 1963.

The minisheet and first-day cover feature another hand-coloured woodcut, Gum Blossoms 1928, from the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.