ABOUT
"[Margaret's] artworks have been completed in a variety of techniques and media incuding watercolours, oil, print making, pastel and charcoal but each conveys a sense of being female, either figuratively or realistically."
- Catherine Bauer , For The Adelaide Magazine article 'Girl Power - Taking Time Out For Art'.
Margaret Collier is visual artist currently living near Brisbane and has been exhibiting as a member of the Half Dozen Group Of Artists.
She has previously exhibited in The Adelaide Fringe in 2007, The Central Studio Gallery, SALA Open Studios in her home studio Wakefield’s Studio, The Florey Medical Exhibitions and at The Hughes Gallery, Fullarton.
Margaret has done a number of private commissions, some of which are now in Brisbane, Adelaide, Canada and Ireland. She was also awarded a public commission for the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide.
Born in Dublin, Ireland Margaret studied languages and philosophy and graduated from University College Dublin and did a post graduate at Trinity College Dublin. Her degree allowed her live and travel in different countries which influenced the evolution of Margaret's art practise.
In Europe she saw original works by artists such as Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rubens and those of the German Neue Pinakothek, all of which have influenced her work. After moving to Canada, life drawing became a new venture.
Margaret’s main preoccupation in her work is colour and light. She will often begin a painting with an image – real or imagined, that has inspired her, but is flexible in her decision making, allowing the “Spirit Within” (one of Margaret's exhibitions) to develop the work.
In 1992 Margaret moved to Australia where watercolour originally predominated her work. While living in Adelaide, South Australia, Margaret studied at The Adelaide Central School of Art and taught watercolour from her home at Wakefield’s Studio in the Adelaide Hills. The organisation “Bright Red Palette”, was founded by Margaret along with three other local Adelaide Hills artists. The group organised group exhibitions and participated in SALA (South Australian Living Artists) exhibitions.
Following a relocation from Adelaide to Brisbane in 2011, Margaret returned to portrait studies. She has since been exhibiting with the Half Dozen Group of Artists, and now having established her studio in Wights Mountain is opening the space for the "Samford and Surrounds Arts Trail and Open Studios" for the first time this June.
