Margaret Dredge Painter
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Born Margaret Vickery, her mother died during childbirth in 1930 and Margaret was raised by her widowed father, William, a Gallipoli veteran. Between 1930 and 1940 they boarded in seventeen different households from Albert Park to South Yarra, mainly with elderly widows, before eventually settling in Sandringham. Even as a teenager Margaret was interested in studying art, and wanted to study at the National Gallery (of Victoria) School. An intelligent young woman who longed to expand her knowledge of art and culture, a trait that motivated her all her life. But at her father’s instance, academic studies were needed to increase the chances of secretarial work.
Margaret Dredge's initial art training was with Inez Hutchinson in the mid 1950s and with Nancy Grant and Robert Grieve[i]. Dredge's early paintings were figurative and still life works, but her output soon led into abstraction, which was to become the focus of her artistic development. [i] Alan McCulloch Encyclopedia of Australian Art 1978 Allen & Unwin |
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