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Edith Cowlishaw has been long recognised as a master Australian Artist printmaker. A recognition that has been gained over a lifetime of dedication to the technique of etching and her enduring bush walking passion. This relationship with the native flora and bush landscape of Australia is evoked in her detailed intaglio drawings of the delicate native plants and flowers, often overlooked, hidden in the undergrowth of the bush.
Cowlishaws' passion for the bush echoes with bush walkers world wide. Her mastery of technique and aesthetic is obvious; it is both a great recommendation of, and recognition for, her skills as printmaker and artist, that her work is represented in the personal collection of the Japanese Royal family.
How very necessary it is to train ourselves to observe the natural beauty around us so that in the exuberance of our beautification schemes we shall not do things that disturb and eventually destroys the landscape. ...seldom, if ever, do we achieve the quiet perfection of Nature’s planting. ~ Edna Walling, 1945.
Edith Cowlishaw is a bush walker and, like well-known Australia artist Margaret Preston, loves walking around the local bushland parks in suburban Sydney and as far afield as her recent explorations in the forests in Manjimup, Western Australia.
Her affinity for the natural plantings of the Australian bush, evident all through Edith's career, are environmentally increasingly important in the current debate over global warming.
Edith's passion for the subtle natural plantings that occur between the trees of our bushland is shown in these finely detailed and delicately executed etchings that celebrate more than fifty years of her personal observations.
Cowlishaw's sensitivity and powers of observation make us look, and look carefully again, at the minutiae that is the Australian bush.
To take a walk through Edith Cowlishaw's eyes is (in the words of John Stilgoe), to enjoy the best-kept secret around - the ordinary, everyday landscape that touches any explorer with magic.
("Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places" 1998).
Arguably one of Australia's longest working Master Printmaker's, Edith Cowlishaw (b.1923) is represented in many Public Collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT; The MAGAM Collection, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney NSW; The Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney NSW; The Coles Myer Collection of Australian Art; The BRAG Collection, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW; The Portland Collection, Lithgow City, NSW; The Private Collection of the Japanese Royal Family, Tokyo Royal Palace, Japan; as well as numerous private and public collections in Australia and Internationally.
..it was in Australia that I gained my first impressions of the beauty of the world, and it was the Bush that taught me. ~ Tom Roberts.
2017 | Edith Cowlishaw: Fifty Years Celebrating the Australian Bush, Artsite Galleries Sydney, NSW |
2015 | Edith Cowlishaw - Etchings, Artsite Galleries, Sydney, NSW |
2007 | Edith Cowlishaw, Impressions on Paper Gallery, Canberra, ACT |
2006, 03, 00, 98, 95, 93, 84, 82 | Edith Cowlishaw, Gallery 460, Gosford, NSW |
1993, 90 | Breewood Galleries, Katoomba, NSW |
1989, 86, 84 | Richard King Gallery, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, NSW |
1989 | Burns Kaldy, Newcastle, NSW |
1988 | Freeman Gallery, Hobart |
1983 | Villeui Gallery, Southport Maitland City Gallery Drill Hall, Canberra, ACT |
1982, 79, 78 | Barry Stern Galleries, Sydney, NSW |
1981 | Ontario Gallery, Canada |
1980 | Cook's Hill Gallery, Newcastle, NSW |
1978 | City Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
1976 | Kabuki, Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
1971 | Workshop Arts Centre, Sydney, NSW |
2021,20,19,18,17,16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11 | Collectors’ Choice, Artsite Galleries Sydney, NSW |
2016 | Portland Art Exhibition Retrospective, Eskbank House & Museum, Lithgow, NSW |
2013 | 25x25: Contemporary Japanese & Australian Printmaking, Japan Foundation Gallery, Sydney |
2012 | Sydney Printmakers Touring Exhibition, Maitland Regional Gallery, Maitland. |
2011 | Hot Off The Press, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Manly Art Gallery, Manly Sydney Printmakers Touring Exhibition, Moree Plains Regional Gallery, Moree. |
2010 | Sydney Printmakers, Atelier Skara, Norway |
2009 | From Print to Print, Hardware Gallery, Enmore |
2008 | Identity, Atelier Skara, Norway, celebrating 20 years of Atelier Skara |
2008, 07 | Taylor Galleries, Summer Hill, Sydney NSW |
2007 | Animal Logic, Impressions on Paper Gallery, Canberra, Marianne Newman Gallery, Sydney. |
2006 | 45 years, Sydney Printmakers, S.H.Ervin Gallery, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery |
2005 | Collaboration, Gosford Regional Gallery, Tweed Heads Regional Gallery, Noosa Regional Gallery |
2004 | Scratch, Pull, Grind and Scrape, Grafton Regional Gallery |
2003 | Scratch, Pull, Grind and Scrape, Mosman Regional Art Gallery |
2002 | Beyond the Surface, UTS Gallery, Sydney International Graphics, Atelier Skara, Norway |
2001 | Signs and Secrets, Port Macquarie Hastings Regional Gallery |
2000 | Surface tension, Hazelhurst Gallery |
1999 | Revelations, UTS Gallery, Sydney Grabados, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chile |
1998 | Text, 37th Annual Members Exhibition, Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney Sydney Printmakers Travelling North, Lake Russell Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour |
1997 | 36th Annual Members Exhibition, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney Expose, Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney |
1996 | Cultural Identities, Guiyang City Art Gallery, China Borderlines, Arts Workshop Gallery Sydney Printmakers, Burnie Regional Gallery, Tasmania 35th Annual Members Exhibition, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney |
1995 | Borderlines, Spiral Arm, Gallery, Canberra |
1994 | Cultural Identities, Blaxland Gallery, Sydney |
2010, 94, 89 | Currabubula Red Cross Art Prize, NSW |
1979 | Bathurst Art Prize, NSW |
Jane Lee, Pressing the point of local Printmaking, The Epoch Times, Edition 305, Arts page 23. Aug 8, 2011.
Germaine, Max. A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia, Craftsman House, 1991 p. 95
Germaine, Max. Artists & Galleries of Australia, Volumes 1 & 2, 3rd Edition. Craftsman Press, Sydney, 1990. P. 143
Verbeek, Ann (ed.). Directory 1988: Australian artists producing prints, Melb: Print Council of Australia, 1989 p. 25
Edith Cowlishaw: Australian Art and Artists File
Craft Arts International - editions 48-49 2000 - Page 106-107
Craft Arts, February-April, page 9. 1988
The Medical Journal of Australia, Volume 143, issues 8-13, 1885 page 596
Big Rewards.. Antiques and Art -Special Investment Guide, The Sydney Morning Herald - Oct 11, 1981 p.61-62
Contemporary Australian Printmakers, Franz Kempf. Landsdowne 1976 p. 130
Don't Throw in the Sponges, The Sydney Morning Herald - Aug 11, 1972, p.16
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
The MAGAM Collection, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney NSW
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.
The Coles Myer Collection of Australian Art.
BRAG Collection, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Royal Family, Tokyo Royal Palace, Japan; Korea; Australia, and Europe