Margaret Picken

My life as a working artist started in 1968 when I left school and became apprenticed as a ‘Tracer’ in Geological drafting to the mining industry. North Broken Hill, BP and finally CRA were my employers as I studied part time in ‘Cartography’ at RMIT. I eventually became a Geological Draftsman and found the training in the precise work in mapping invaluable later in life.

‘Working from Home’ as they call it now was a fantastic 20 years for me when I became a sketch artist for Real Estate properties in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne around 1983. Again, my drafting skills were invaluable as sketches, floorplans and site plans were produced for the newspaper, brochures and flyers. I thoroughly enjoyed having my own business and being my own boss.

With the advent of color photos and videos my sketches were no longer required in early 2000 and so I looked to enjoy my art practice for what it could provide in a personal way. Calligraphy was first for 2 years with Janine Mitchell, a preeminent calligrapher who ran her own business in Canterbury. Around 2012 an art class with Stephen Doyle at VAS followed and then a casual painting class at the Balwyn Community Center which was a nice pleasant way into painting in oils.

As I had not done a fine arts course of any sort I decided to return to the basics, drawing. I enrolled with Linda Weil at VAS and enjoyed her classes for 1 ½ years before changing to Julian Bruere’s classes for 3 years. I felt ready to go on my own.

I joined Hawthorn Artists Society in 2019 and continue to enjoy ‘The Friday morning Basement Group’ there. Painting in oils is still my preferred medium but I also dabble in pencil drawing with some watercolor and still enjoy some calligraphy. My husband enjoys photography and framing so we are quite a couple, using some of his images as inspiration for my paintings.

I enjoy entering as many exhibitions as I can both at VAS and other and happily have sold a few. Painting has become a wonderful way to express myself with the Pilbara, Kimberley, Karijini landscape my favorite areas, however some botanical images are pushing through recently.