About me - working for Val Morgan's and three other Adelaide women artists - 1960s 1970s

A 'forgotten' art.

Remembering 3 women artists from South Australia.

Chasing my memories, and finding out things that have a 'wow' factor.

In my late teens I went to a 'commercial art' course for one term at Norwood Technical Collage. It meant a long travel by bus from Grange. But was the closest that I imagined having a career in art my teacher was Marjorie Hann.

She was in her 50s and already a noted artist in many ways. I never imagined that this choice would lead me in to a unique part-time job doing 'commercial art'.

She was needing someone to fill in for her while she went on vacation, and chose to put my name forward, and I was accepted. $2 an hour seemed like a fortune at the time.

Because of the uniqueness of the position, I was mentored by her and her best friend - Vanessa Smith. They knew each other affectionately as 'Fish and Lamb(e)' - they had met at the Adelaide School of Art, and were firm friends right up until Vanessa's death in the early 2000s, living just one street away from each other.

Vanessa was an incredible artist, and known for her own expertise - as a glass artist and considered the best of the best. Both were watercolourists, which is where some of my charm of watercolour comes from (other than from Sir Hans Heysen, whom my grandfather sat next to in Primary school in Norwood/Maylands in the late 1800s.

While I loved his art, as it was on every school room or government building wall, the fact that grandpa knew him, and loved getting the Christmas cards from him in some of my early years.

Marjorie is known well enough to be on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Hann

I couldn't find much on Vanessa, and was asked by Marjorie at one stage to write Vanessa's story, as she believed her stained glass designs and work to be truly exceptional. Her work is acclaimed as treasures.

http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=1497&mode=singleImage

The third artist I worked with is/was Jenny Gore. I 'found' her today. I knew she had become an enamel artist due to her effort in winning an exhibition I was part of organising in Salisbury in the 1980s. While not totally surprised, I see she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal - for her extraordinary enamel artwork.

http://www.jennygoreenamel.com.au/index.html

So the fact that 4 of us worked together almost makes me pinch myself. Incredible! While we were part-time and worked from home, we crossed paths and I kept in close contact specifically with Marjorie and Vanessa. We always exchanged Christmas cards, through the years.

Where did we work?

Val Morgan's - theatre advertising. Most were for drive-ins. I loved the work, and did it for 2 years before leaving Australian Shores for England.

Quite a unique process. Long gone now.

Here is a 'colour rough'/'submit' which we would do based on a clients requirements - submitted to client for approval prior to doing the final art, from that time. I have 9 of these. I'll talk more about the process in later posts.

Just amazed that this was all part of my life.

More to come ...