Mary Packer Harris

Last updated

Mary Packer Harris D.A. (Edin.) (30 July 1891 – 26 August 1978) was a Scottish artist and art teacher with a considerable career in South Australia.

Contents

History

Mary was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire the only daughter of musician and beekeeper Clement Antrobus Harris (c. 1862 – 12 February 1942) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Harris ( – 14 February 1937). Educated in Scotland she attended Morrison's Academy and Perth Academy before graduating with a diploma from the Edinburgh College of Art. [1] In 1913 she did a post-graduate course in woodblock printing with F. Morley Fletcher, director of the College. She trained as a teacher with the Scottish Education Department and taught at Buckie, Banffshire, Scotland, then from 1918 at the Ayr Academy. An elder brother, Antrobus, was killed in the Flanders trenches in 1916. [2] Another brother, John Brocas Harris ( –1967) had earlier emigrated to South Australia, served at Gallipoli with the Army Medical Corps and was badly wounded. He married Gwendoline Mary Colyer ( –1959) in 1917, and settled in Gawler, where he was a noted horticulturist.

In response to his urging, Mary and her parents emigrated in 1921. In 1922 she accepted a position with the SA School of Arts and Crafts, where she was to teach for 30 years in a wide range of mediums: oil and watercolor, lino and woodblock printing, tapestry and embroidery. She was a longtime member of the Royal SA Society of Arts (1922–67) and also exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society. Fellow teachers included her friend Ruth Tuck. Students included Rex Wood, Jacqueline Hick and John Olday. She lived at "Bundilla", 116 Walkerville Terrace, Walkerville, which she filled with her own and her students' art, and with a lovingly tended native bird garden punctuated with sculptures by William Ricketts and her nephew Quintin Gilbert Harris (1928–1985), son of J. B. Harris (above). Her bequest of this home to the Town of Walkerville was declined, but the Council did accept the many works of art, including sculptures by her friend Ola Cohn. [3]

Other interests

Exhibitions

Works

Physical
Bibliography

Related Research Articles

Catherine Helen Spence

Catherine Helen Spence was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of electoral proportional representation. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. Called the "Greatest Australian Woman" by Miles Franklin and by the age of 80 dubbed the "Grand Old Woman of Australia", Spence was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia.

Art Gallery of South Australia Art gallery in Adelaide, Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of almost 45,000 works of art, making it the second largest state art collection in Australia. As part of North Terrace cultural precinct, the Gallery is flanked by the South Australian Museum to the west and the University of Adelaide to the east.

Gilberton is an inner northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia on the northern bank of the River Torrens a short distance from Adelaide’s city centre. It is bounded by the river, Park terrace, Stephen Terrace and Northcote Terrace. The suburb is largely residential with some large and ornate Victorian homes and approximately 2 kilometres (1 mi) of the Torrens Linear Park as its southern boundary. The large homes in the suburb's northern section give it a historic character that is protected by Government planning regulations.

Violet Teague

Violet Helen Evangeline Teague was an Australian artist, noted for her painting and printmaking.

Ethel Barringer was a South Australian artist who excelled in various media, but was particularly known for her etchings.

Dorrit Black Australian painter

Dorothea Foster Black was an Australian painter and printmaker of the Modernist school, known for being a pioneer of Modernism in Australia. In 1951, at the age of sixty, Black was killed in a car crash.

Emanuel Solomon Australian businessman and politician

Emanuel Solomon was a businessman and politician in the early days of the Colony of South Australia

William Menz was founder of the South Australian biscuit and confectionery business W. Menz & Co..

George Melrose was a Scottish pioneer of South Australia, whose descendants were prominent in pastoral and professional circles.

Andrew MacCormac was a portrait painter in South Australia.

John Charles Goodchild was a painter and art educator in South Australia who mastered the mediums of pen drawing, etching and watercolors. His wife, Doreen Goodchild, was also a significant South Australian artist.

Ivor Pengelly Francis was an artist and art critic and teacher in South Australia. He has been called South Australia's premier surrealist painter.

George Mayo

George Mayo was a medical practitioner in the colony of South Australia.

Marie Tuck

Marie Anne Tuck, was an artist and art educator in South Australia.

Ruth Tuck

Ruth Edith Tuck was a modernist painter of South Australia, noted for joint exhibitions with her husband Mervyn Ashmore Smith, and her influence as a teacher of painting. She was related to the better-known Marie Tuck.

William Richard Pybus was a South Australian organist, pianist and music teacher.

Rex Wood was a South Australian artist who lived for many years in Portugal.

Thomas Grigg was a South Australian violinist, teacher and conductor.

Walkerville Brewery was a brewer of beer in Adelaide, South Australia. The company became a Co-operative, and grew by admitting hotel owners as shareholders, and absorbed smaller breweries. After several amalgamations it moved its operations to Southwark and by 1920 it was South Australia's largest brewing company. It was bought out by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1939 and its facilities became the company's Southwark brewery, which still operates.

References

  1. ↑ "Art on the Railways". The Register (Adelaide) . XCI (26, 589). South Australia. 17 March 1926. p. 11. Retrieved 1 September 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2
  3. 1 2 3 Menz, Christopher Menz. "Mary Packer Harris" . Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "20,000 Years of Artists And Of Art". The News (Adelaide) . 47 (7, 290). South Australia. 13 December 1946. p. 2. Retrieved 1 September 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Harris, Mary Packer, 1891-1978 PRG 657" (PDF). State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  6. ↑ "Posters and Paintings". The News (Adelaide) . VIII (1, 155). South Australia. 28 March 1927. p. 8. Retrieved 2 September 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Novel Crafts At Art Exhibition". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . South Australia. 1 November 1939. p. 9. Retrieved 1 September 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Art Show". The News (Adelaide) . 46 (7, 079). South Australia. 10 April 1946. p. 7. Retrieved 1 September 2016– via National Library of Australia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.