My current art crush - Hilda Rix Nicholas -1884-1961

I recently stumbled across the Australian Artist “Hilda Rix Nicholas” (1884-1961) when I was at The National Gallery in Victoria.

I was initially drawn to her painting “In Picardy” of a French woman outside in a garden with luminous colour and beautiful light and shade. And then I discovered her landscape “Canberra from Red Hill” and knew immediately where she had painted this from as I had painted the same view earlier this year and it is located 5 mins walk from my home. Further research revealed multiple artworks created in Canberra as part of a road trip and I found "View from Mount Pleasant" which I had also painted this year.

It was exciting and fascinating to see landscapes painted by an Artist in 1927 that I had also painted myself.

I’ve since looked further into her work and read about her life as an artist which has been such an inspiration to me.

She made a significant contribution to Australian art during the first half of the twentieth century. One of the few Australian Female artists who had the opportunity to travel to Paris and study and featured in the Paris Salon which was a rare opportunity for women at the time. An incredible female Australian Artist who I should have heard of by now and deserves more recognition in my opinion.  

Her work is right up there with Streeton, Sorolla and many of the other post impressionist artists I admire but I have read that she fell out of favour with art critics later in her career because she was a feminist which is possibly why her work is only now starting to resurface in the mainstream.

These serendipitous discoveries can be such influential moments as an artist. xx

Images
1. "In Picardy" 

2. "Canberra from Red Hill"

3. My piece “Wandering” painted from Red Hill

4. "View from Mount Pleasant" 

5. My piece painted en plein air of the same view from Mount Pleasant.

6. Autumn in the Blue Mountains

7. The Picnic

8. Cottage Garden

9. Hilda painting in Australia

"hildarixnicholas" "australianlandscapepainters" "redhill" "mountpleasant"