Margaret Preston, Australia's best-loved woman painter, was a 'red-headed little firebrand.'
In argument, she was obstinate: 'Everything sparkled and shook when she was around.'
In practice, experimental: still-life was the 'laboratory table on which aesthetic problems can be isolated.'
In theory, direct and uncompromising: 'Be Aboriginal.'
Elizabeth Butel traces Preston's struggle for artistic and financial independence, as well as her travels throughout the world and Aboriginal Australia in search of inspiration for her art. Her conclusions - that Margaret Preston's vision is as fresh today as it was sixty years ago.
